Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Why is the State of the Union Always ‘Strong’?
Why is the State of the Union Always ‘Strong’?
Mar 16, 2026 12:28 PM

Near the beginning of his State of the Union address last night, President Obama said, “. . . and we can say with renewed confidence that the State of our Union is stronger.”

If you were surprised to hear that the union is “strong” then this was probably the first time you’ve heard a State of the Union address. Over the last hundred years presidents have described the State of the Union (SOTU) in various ways—Good (Truman), Sound (Carter), Not Good (Ford). But it was Ronald Reagan who started the “strong” trend in 1983 by referring to the SOTU as “Strong, but the economy is troubled.” Since 1983, “strong” has been used to refer to the SOTU in 25 addresses.

Here is howthe state of the Union has been described over the past hundred years:

2012: Strong (Obama)

2011: Strong (Obama)

2010: Strong (Obama)

2009: Stronger than before (Obama)

2008: Strong (Bush)

2007: Strong (Bush)

2006: Strong (Bush)

2005: Confident and Strong (Bush)

2004: Confident and Strong (Bush)

2003: Strong (Bush)

2002: Never been stronger (Bush)

2001: Strong (Bush)

2000: Strongest it has ever been (Clinton)

1999: Strong (Clinton)

1998: Strong (Clinton)

1997: Strong (Clinton)

1996: Strong (Clinton)

1995: Stronger than it was two years ago (Clinton)

1994: Growing stronger but it must be stronger still (Clinton)

1991-92: [Status of the SOTU not specified] (Bush I)

1990: Sound and strong (Bush I)

1988: Strong, prosperous, at peace, and free (Reagan)

1987: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Reagan)

1986: Stronger than a year ago and growing stronger each day (Reagan)

1985: Stronger, freer, and more secure than before (Reagan)

1984: Much improved (Reagan)

1983: Strong, but the economy is troubled (Reagan)

1982: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Reagan)

1981: Sound (Carter)

1980: Depends on the state of the world(Carter)

1979: Sound (Carter)

1978: Sound (Carter)

1977: Good (Ford)

1976: Better–in many ways a lot better–but still not good enough (Ford)

1975: Not Good (Ford)

1974: At peace with every nation of the world (Nixon)

1973: Sound, and full of promise (Nixon)

1969-1972: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Johnson, Nixon)

1968: Challenged (Johnson)

1966-67: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Johnson)

1965: Depends, in large measure, upon the state of the world (Johnson)

1950-1964: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson)

1949: Good (Truman)

1948: Reflects the changing nature of the modern world (Truman)

1928-47: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman)

1927: In general is good (Coolidge)

1926: One of general peace and prosperity (Coolidge)

1925: One of progress and prosperity (Coolidge)

1913-24: [No status of the SOTU specified] (Wilson, Harding, Coolidge)

Note: Speeches given in 1989, 1993, 2001, and 2009 were not technically “State of the Union” addresses.

Previous Article：The SOTU and Response Word Clouds Next Article：Samuel Gregg: An Alternate Reality State of the Union Address
Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Celebrating ‘intrapreneurship’: The power of employee-innovators
In our pursuit of economic prosperity and progress, we tend to focus heavily on the role of the entrepreneur—and rightly so. Many of the world’s most transformative discoveries e from people willing to take significant risks and endure painful sacrifices to bring new enterprises to life. When es to our theology of work, our focus tends toward much of the same. Indeed, from a Christian perspective, the call of the entrepreneur provides a uniquely vivid example of how our economic...
Acton Line podcast: The morality of ‘Joker’; How Clarence Thomas is changing SCOTUS
The new super villain drama ‘Joker’ has shattered box office records and gained much controversial media attention along the way. Set to top $900 million worldwide, the dark film from director Todd Phillips and actor Joaquin Phoenix is already being heralded as the biggest R-rated movie ever. So why has ‘Joker’ been such a hit? Christian Toto, award winning movie critic and editor at Hollywood in Toto, breaks it down, explaining how the film touches on themes like mental illness,...
Acton publishes detailed exposition of the Catholic view of poverty, inequality, and wealth redistribution – in French
Some passages of the Bible tell the rich to weep and wail because of their wealth. But these verses can mislead Christians whose attitude to wealth is not deeply rooted in the Christian church’s 2,000-year-long balanced view, according to a new, French-language article published on the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website. This article is part of the Acton Institute’s ongoing effort to reach the 275 million people in the world who speak French as a native language. mentary...
The uncertain future for free markets in America
A week ago I participated in a panel for the Philadelphia Society on “Conservatism and the Coming Economy.” During the Q&A, I was asked about the future of economic freedom specifically regarding our two major political parties. I had briefly touched on this in my remarks, and though I noted that current trends do not look good, I believe that support for liberty requires the virtue of hope. First, the current trend: On the one hand, while President Trump is...
How leftist populism is crushing freedom in Bolivia
As we’ve seen in countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, Latin American left-leaning populists are quite content to work in democratic systems—until, that is, those systems start delivering results which they don’t like. The same dynamic is now unfolding in another Latin American country. Evo Morales has been President of Bolivia since 2006. A strong admirer of the late Hugo Chavez, Morales stood for a fourth five-year term on 20 October, having unilaterally abolished term-limits, despite voters rejecting his bid...
Festal economics: How the market empowers celebration
With the end-of-the-year string of holidays fast approaching, we already see decorations and supplies showing up in stores, whether for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas. Most people would likely peg me for a bit of a holiday Scrooge. When es to Advent, for example, I’m critical of some of the consumeristic excess and the disruption of the liturgical calendar. I consider Advent a penitential season of fasting and abstinence—not exactly things we’d associate with Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays—and I...
Drucker on private property and the modern corporation
This is the sixth in a series of essays on Peter Drucker’s early works. Peter Drucker recognized the revolutionary aspect of the corporate form. The older corporations wielded something close to sovereign authority as they essentially ruled the territory wherever they traded and planted. Other corporations followed by exploiting natural monopolies such as bridges and utilities. But the new corporation, the corporation of the modern era, is a different sort of thing. Modern corporations arise when individuals delegate their private...
Amazon tribal chief: Liberation theology sustains primitive economy
Pope Francis greets indigenous representatives in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, Friday, Jan. 19, 2018. Standing with thousands of indigenous Peruvians, Francis declared the Amazon the “heart of the church” and called for a three-fold defense of its life, land and cultures. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) As the Synod of Bishops from the Amazon continues to make headlines, many are curious about the contents of its ing report. According to Pope Francis, the synod’s goal is “to identify new paths for the evangelization...
Ginsburg and Hale: Creating new laws from the bench
In a mentary, Trey Dimsdale looks at winsome celebrity jurists Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Brenda Hale, heroines of the left wing project to change how constitutional law is understood in the United States and the United Kingdom. The careers of these jurists raise questions about the proper role of those who sit on the bench, Dimsdale writes. The approach adopted by Hale and Ginsburg should be viewed with skepticism rather than celebration. Of course, injustice may be reflected in a...
On being wrapped up in books
Last night I gave an address at The Grand Castle in Grandville, Michigan on the occasioning of its library opening. I spoke on the importance of books and libraries. As the Librarian and a Research Associate at the Acton Institute it is a topic of professional interest but is also an abiding private passion. Managing the library and doing editorial work on publications means that I deal in books from their conception to natural death, from womb to tomb as...
Related Classification
RELIGION & LIBERTY
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
About
Terms and Conditions Privacy policy Cookie Settings Contact Us
Services
Login register
mreligion RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE RELIGION & LIBERTY
Links
zpostcode Recruit weather mreligion Yellowpages sport constellation shopping name game directory literature Word tour furnish Lottery tftnews lyrics News digital car dir Edu Finance
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved