Elected government leaders at any level of government are always expected to give speeches; most enjoy the chance to be on stage. With their speeches, national leaders are given roles as agenda-setters as well as policymakers.

In Germany and in other European parliamentary systems, the chancellor, prime minister, or president carries the responsibility of persuading voters that his or her government is carrying out a successful mandate. These leaders must do so in front of both their supporters and opponents in the parliamentary assemblies they address. As anyone who has witnessed the debates in the House of Commons or in the Bundestag, it can be a very noisy affair.

However, that is not how it works in the U.S. When the president speaks publicly, he does it from the White House or elsewhere around the country, and usually in front of a selected friendly audience. Only rarely–and usually once a year–does the president speak to a combined audience of his supporters and opponents. And with one glaring exception in 2009, the speech is not subject to opposition cat calls as is the case in Europe. That speech happened on Tuesday of this week in Obama’s third State of the Union address.

This time, the speech offered a unique platform to make an argument for his re-election in November. While the interim period will be saturated with television commercials from Obama and from his future opponent, this one evening was a chance for the president to address both the Congress and the nation with a message that will set the tone for his push to win a second term.

Even though it is only one chapter in a long story to be written during the next nine months leading up to the November 6 elections, it offered a window less on the state of the union, and more on the state of the argument about it. That can be of some help for those trying to make sense of what Americans are debating, be it over policy or polemics, and why they are debating the way they have been.

Given that there is an avalanche of conflicting facts and interpretations of those in office, what really emerges from this political cacophony is a mirror of what Americans see–or want to see–in their elected leaders. Despite a continuing decline in trust in government and in those who govern in Washington, voters can become surprisingly motivated in an election year by candidates trying to win or keep a seat in Washington–even as those candidates rail against the city being in gridlock.

The Constitution of the United States demands that the president “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient” (Art. II, Sec. 3). The exact time for such information and measures to be delivered was not prescribed, nor was an indication on how to present such information provided. Nevertheless, it became a ritual for the president to make the trip down Pennsylvania Avenue to deliver a speech to Congress. Now, the speech is delivered in January and captured on television in the evening when the entire nation can watch the performance. President Obama’s address will continue the tradition that began long ago with George Washington.