From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Speech by US president Bill Clinton
The
1997 State of the Union Address
was given by the 42nd
president of the United States
,
Bill Clinton
, on February 4, 1997, at 9:00 p.m.
EST
, in the chamber of the
United States House of Representatives
to the
105th United States Congress
. It was Clinton's fourth
State of the Union Address
and his
fifth speech
to a
joint session of the United States Congress
. Presiding over this joint session was the
House speaker
,
Newt Gingrich
, accompanied by
Al Gore
, the
vice president
, in his capacity as the
president of the Senate
.
President Clinton discussed numerous topics in the address, including the environment, the
International Space Station
, welfare, crime and relations with
NATO
and China. The president also focused on a "detailed plan to balance the budget by 2002".
The
Republican Party
response was delivered by
Oklahoma
congressman
J. C. Watts
in front of high school students sponsored by the
Close Up Foundation
.
[1]
The speech did not get the national attention it usually does because the same evening of the speech a verdict was given in the
O. J. Simpson
civil trial in his ex-wife and her friend's 1994 murders. The White House however refused to postpone the
State of the Union Address
.
[2]
This was the first State of the Union Address carried live on the
Internet
.
[3]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Richard E. Sincere Jr. (February 1997).
"O.J., J.C., and Bill: Reflections on the State of the Union"
. Metro Herald. Archived from
the original
on July 31, 2002
. Retrieved
January 23,
2007
.
Watts told his audience -- about 100 high school students from the CloseUp Foundation watched in person, while a smaller number watched on television at home -- that he is "old enough to remember the Jim Crow" laws that affected him and his family while he grew up in a black neighborhood in small-town Oklahoma.
- ^
"O.J., J.C., and Bill: Reflections on the State of the Union"
. Archived from
the original
on July 31, 2002.
- ^
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives.
"Office of the Clerk"
. Archived from
the original
on May 13, 2009
. Retrieved
April 14,
2009
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
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- Legend:
Address to Joint Session
- Written message
- Written message with national radio address
* Split into multiple parts
- †
Included a detailed written supplement
- ‡
Not officially a "State of the Union"
Presidents
William Henry Harrison
(1841) and
James Garfield
(1881) died in office before delivering a State of the Union
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