Re: State of the Union and standing ovations?
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It's simply the culturaly established way to show strong support for a political statement during a speech.
Stupid culture. Support means nothing when it is programmed like this. As for the procedure, it reminds me of the tale of the emperors new clothes; no one dare to tell how stupid it looks.
Adde
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Adde, the ovations may indeed be grossly inefficient, but you discredit yourself with uninformed comments like the one above.
The applause isn't to show support of the president, rather to show support for what he just said. His opponents may at times applaud while his own party sits or even jeers. Basically, it is a system that has developed over the years through which Congress indicates how likely they are to comply with the president's objectives in the coming year. If you follow Congressional politics closely, then you can actually learn a lot from the applause.
What amazes me is that the media express surprise every single year when the speech goes twenty minutes longer than it did in rehearsal.
-2kF
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