US Tomorrow: State of the Union address

Every year for decades, presidents have traveled to Capitol Hill to deliver their State of the Union address. They've done it because the Constitution told them to.

More or less.
Actually, all the Constitution says, in Article II, Section 3, is that the president shall "from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."
Not a word about the pageantry of the president’s slow walk down the aisle to front of the House chamber, getting handshakes and hugs from members of his party. Not a word about the major TV networks pre-empting regular prime-time coverage to broadcast the speech. Not a word about tallying up how long the president spoke and how many times he was interrupted by applause.
In fact, if a president wants to literally mail in his remarks, that would be fine.
While the first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, delivered their messages in person, Thomas Jefferson sent a written message. Other presidents followed Jefferson’s lead until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson decided that he would deliver his speech in person.

NEW YORK TIMES

Brief history of the State of the Ubion Address - US Government:
>>  http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/souhistory.htm

TIME
In terms of the address itself, President Obama (through planning and happenstance) approaches his State of the Union speech in a stronger position than any president in recent memory. Since his midterm shellacking, Obama has seen an extraordinary political recovery and expectations for the speech itself aren't too high for him to meet. The combination of his momentum, bipartisan seating arrangements and the emotion in the hall sure to be generated by guests from Arizona means the president is almost certainly going to have a boffo evening that plays to his political strong suits. Now he just has to deliver.