State of the Union speeches take one of two forms: presenting an agenda for the country or presenting a vision for the country. Tuesday night, President Bush did the latter.

The kind of speech the president gives depends on the state of the country and the president himself. For instance, President Clinton was known for giving long, detailed speeches, rife with specific and detailed policy proposals. His speeches, which lasted nearly twice as long as Bush’s, outlined in detail the programs the White House would be asking Congress to fund.

William Dobson, a UW-Madison professor, said Clinton’s talks were laundry lists and went much more into the specifics of programs. Clinton would rattle on and on about how much he would specifically spend on various social programs. Given Clinton’s less-than-stellar relations with Congress (impeachment comes to mind), much of what he would propose during the midnight State of the Union sessions never saw the light of day. But some did.

Tuesday night Bush refrained from naming any specifics. Instead, he outlined where he wants the country to go, leaving the specifics to the audience in the room: the military, his cabinet and Congress.

Dobson said Bush’s speech was right for the time because his war programs were well received — the president is running on an 84 percent approval rating, six percentage points lower than his high of 90 percent immediately following the terrorist attacks. Bush played to his strong suit of looking at the broader picture and “telling it like it is” to get his message to America.

The difference between the two presidents’ speeches should be looked at in the context of time as well as presidential character, Dobson said. Clinton had a budget surplus and no emergency situation to deal with. Thus, he could spend more time going into programs he’d like to have seen implemented — even if most of those proposals never materialized.

Bush, on the other hand, is leading the country in an unprecedented war on terrorism and trying to save a sagging economy. He does not have the extra money to wage new programs, so attaching price tags will only result in Congressional skepticism.

In the next few weeks, Bush will detail how he will pay for the proposals outlined in his speech. Tuesday night, his only goal was to present a context for the more detailed proposals.

Tuesday night’s State of the Union was the first of its kind for our generation. After eight years of proposal-laden addresses, Bush gave a speech that was vintage W: announcing the ends, but leaving the means for later.