With a President perceived to be strongly liked by the American public, it may seem strange to learn that his predecessor, George W. Bush – the one who is so despised by voters – actually had more people who watched his State of the Union (SOTU) Addresses than the amount of people who watch the speeches of President Obama.
Consider the numbers from Nielson:
ü Obama’s current SOTU address was viewed by 42.7 million people. The Bush speech given in the same time, early the third year in office (2003) was viewed by 62.0 million people.
ü Bush’s 2003 speech was given shortly before the start of Iraq War, which likely drove up viewership. However, a year later, Bush still had 43.4 million viewers, beating down Obama’s current number.
ü Bush’s SOTU of early in his second year was viewed by 51.7 people, beating the 48 million of Obama’s second SOTU address.
ü Granted, Obama’s first SOTU of 52.3 million was considerably stronger than Bush’s first SOTU that had only 39.7 million. However, the average viewers of Bush’s first three SOTU speeches, beats Obama’s first three by an average of 3.4 million per speech.
ü The average viewers of Obama’s three SOTU addresses in addition to his joint speech on health care, is 42.4 million per speech. This is similar to Clinton’s last four SOTU numbers of 42.2 million, and only a little stronger than the 40.7 million average of Bush’s last four SOTU addresses (of which the first two includes only English-language networks, which means the worn-out Bush meets the popular Clinton, and the freshly Obama).
ü Side Note: Bush’s last SOTU address had 37.5 million viewers, versus the only 31.4 million who watched the last given by Bill Clinton.
The bottom line: Based on how Bush is beat down by some in the media versus how Clinton and Obama are hailed as the most loving things the American public has ever had, few would know that Bush handily meets and in some cases beats the above two presidents in the amount people who actually watched what he had to say.
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