Fred Barnes on Fox News earlier this evening noted that in his experience covering the SOTU for about 30 years that the speeched tended not to be especially memorable. He noted three sound bites that stuck in his head:

Ford: “The state of the Union is not good.”

Clinton: “The era of big government is now over.” (from the 1996 speech)

Bush: “Axis of Evil”

Can anyone think of any other memorable phrases or soundbites?

I was thinking that maybe Clinton’s formulation that abortions should be “safe, legal and rare” was from a SOTU, but a quick search of his speeches reveals this not to be the case. (Here’s an index of Clinton SOTUs).

Anyway, the challenge is: can anyone remember anything memorable at all from a SOTU apart from the ones listed above?