ATL State of the Union Addresses

Here's the idea -- pick a president in an ATL and an excerpt from one of their State of the Union Addresses.

(TL it's from)
ATL President
Year of speech*
An excerpt

An example:

(from RFK surviving TL**)
Robert F Kennedy
1970
" I am asking the Congress to enact this administration’s healthcare plan with all due possible speed. Universal, quality healthcare is not a luxury, an entitlement or even ‘socialism’ as was mentioned in a recent response to our healthcare proposal. The first universal health insurance plan was proposed by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1883, and he could hardly be called a socialist or even a liberal by period or modern standards. When you have been to the Mississippi Delta as I have, and seen the starvation, the Third World conditions, children who will never develop their full mental faculties because they have been starved before their fifth birthday, that is a crime against morality. Are we to tell those children and their parents that if they do not qualify for Medicaid and cannot afford private insurance they do not have the right to healthcare? If they are not healthy, how can they find work, get an education and move up the socioeconomic ladder that has always been the centrepiece of the American Dream?"

*(or submitted document, if still practiced)

**Actually taken from RogueBeaver's The Impossible Dream
 
(Teddy holds on)
1917
Fifth Inagural address…new record, from what I hear. I won't lie and and say I'm not pleased, but you'll excuse me if I cannot muster as much excitement as I did four times before. It would be idiotic of me to remind you of the millions dead all over god's green earth. True, our intervention proved decisive in crippling the Ottoman Empire through it's leaders' capture an timely excecution. Yes, that was a major achievement, but this old cowboy takes greater pride in our successful invasion of Russian lands, deposing the Bolshevik government and laying the groundwork for a good, honest democracy following the American example. Not to mention how we reopened the eastern front that cowardly communists had closed down.
This has all been great, but you all know why my face is so dour: the Kaiser and his hun army hold on to the centre of Europe. Through American leadership and sheer number-strength they have been pushed way back, but their ploy of trench warfare (which I insist must be avoided at all times) keeps us from complete victory.
It will be a tough battle, but you have my word, on my honor as a man, that we will take vengeance upon the vile hun! Victory for America is to mean woe for the German beast! God bless America, and may he have mercy on the Hun, for we certainly won't.
 
Great minds think alike on eras :)

I tried to do a long one but it timed out; this is more of an excerpt anyway...

Timeline (POD 1863, Union wins ACW early) "Brotherhood and Baseball" http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Baseballifsandmore

ATL President
Oscar Underwood


Year of speech
1917 (I think it was still given in December, if not it's January of 1918)

"...Though we have had hiccups, and it is only a handful of units so far, I can honestly say that the integration of our Army has gone well. It will be recalled that I ordered it last year in the wake of the mistreatment of those brave Buffalo Soldiers in Houston who captured Pancho Villa, and other stories I'd heard about the mistreament of loyal men who seek to protect our freedoms and, as Senator Wilson says, make the world safe for democracy....We are fighting in France with these troops, and I have been told by General pershing that they are doing very well...Our nation stands as a beacon, beckoning all others to follow the path to freedom, a muddy path which our brave soldiers are now forced to trudge through to protect that freedom. I promise you, however, that once this war is over, the world shall be safe for democracy, and we shall shine ever more brightly because we hve honored these brave men, just as we honor the heroes of baseball whom we have revered for half a century. They have always played as professionals on an integrated field, one which is becoming raidly more so..."

"...I spoke to their elder statesman, Octavius Catto, who is in very declining health, and while he continues to push for much greater integration, he agrees that - as with baseball- the important thing is to allow the races to be exposed to each other and see that we are not a threat to each other...I promise you, I have not become a staunch integrationist. However, I have a duty, as President Lincoln said both during and after our great Civil War, to steer a course between two rocky cliffs. And, there are times when the actions of a few, when allowed to spread, force one to take measures one mgiht not otherwise take - when that rocky cliff threatens to topple over on you, it is time to get out of the way. And, that is just what we have done, in coming out against those tyrants who would prevent brave men from serving alongside their fellow soldiers...."
 
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Since there was also an inaugural address here

Sam Rayburn becomes President, late 1950 (A TL that was inspired by a thread recently - feel free to steal as I may never get to it:

"My fellow Americans: In the 174 years of our great nation's history, we have established a great tradition of peaceful transition of government, molded by our foerfathers, whose wisdom appears almost Divine, even today. For today, i stand before you, after thecruel assassination of President Truman, and the sad death in office of his successor, President Barkeley, as this nation's 35th president.

"Let us not think of this as a time to cower becasue of loss, however, but as a time rejoice in that wisdom which has kept our nation going, and which shall allow us to outlast the Johnny come lately of Societ Communism by many years. For I am not just a Speaker of the House of representatives. I a a represenstative of my district of Texas - a proud, loyal Texan, who has served his people for nearly 4 decades. And I was elected by the representatives of every other district in this great land to lead that body of Representatives. No, I may not have been directly elected by the people, but considering the turmoil and terror which might have overcome many lesser nations, even those of Europe, and i daresay that we have the best system in the world!

"Throughout my time in in the House, I have preached co-poperation and kindly working witht he other side to accomplish my goals. Ladies and gentlemen, that is what we shall do going forward, united under our great star spangled banner to show the rest of the world that we do not and will not resort to anarchy....

"There is much work to be done. People will perhaps call for an amendment allowing a Vice President to be appointed if that office is vacant, or even a new election. (Grinning and chuckling.) I kind of like that idea. It might have prevented this. But, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere until my term ends on January 20 of 1953, when I hope again to represent my native district of Texas as I have for so many years. I believe what we need right now is stability, and not another election a year or year and a half early. That is what man does; he sticks it through till the end.

"But, there is work to be done on antoher front, too. It brings me to a point on which some other Southerners and I have differed over the years. It goes back to my point about being an elected Representative. My friends, I'll be the first to admit htat I actually stretched the truth a little there. I'm sorry. But I want to provide a full explanation now, as I shall throughout my stay in office. So there will be no misunderstandings, no lies.

"I am not elected by all the people. Nor are many of our Soueern leaders. That is becasue of the anton disregard for an amendment of that very constitution which I praised so heavily in the beginning for allowing this peaceful transition of power to unfold! I speak of a group of people who have not wantonly attacked like those who murdered President Truman. i speak of a group of people who have been attacked, brutalized, hung, lynched, just like former President Harry S Truman, may he rest in peace. I am speaking of the black person in the American South.

"And so , i say to my friends in congress. Let's do something about this, so we can be truthful, and know that we really do represent all the people. And so we can carry on with that great tradition with which we were endowed by our forefathers, with the incredible wisdom of the Ages. Because we want to show the Soviets most conclusively, just as we show them through this peaceful transition of power, that we are simply superior in every institution. That we will work to ensure that this Cold War is won not5 by might, but by right."

(This in response to a number of suggestions of a 1951 Voting Rights Act with Rayburn as President - which would possible lead to an earlier Civil Rights Act int he '50s, too.)
 
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