President Obama’s most-Tweeted #SOTU lines

By
Tuesday, 12 January 2016

As President Obama delivers his final State of the Union Address tonight, many will look back at what’s changed since his first presidential speech to Congress in 2009. Over seven years’ time, one thing that’s remained consistent is that Americans have made each of the President’s annual addresses a shared experience by live-Tweeting their thoughts and reactions.

Mr. Obama is the first president to take office during Twitter’s existence, and his administration has continually adapted the historic speech to connect to an increasingly digital audience. During live moments and cultural touchstones like #SOTU, people turn to Twitter to follow and discuss the event together, and in real time.

We took a look back at what you’ve had to say over President Obama’s tenure. Here are his most-Tweeted #SOTU lines, as told through Tweets themselves:

2009*:

2010:

2011:

2012:

2013:

2014:

2015:

What will inspire the most Twitter chatter tonight? Follow #SOTU and share which lines matter to you, and check out @Gov for live updates on how voters are responding.

*Not technically a State of the Union address, but nonetheless the President’s first SOTU-like speech to a joint session of Congress.