SOTU: Unforgettable State Of The Union Speech Moments (PHOTOS)

All eyes will be on President Barack Obama Tuesday evening, when he gives his third official State of the Union address. For many presidents, the annual address to Congress has been an opportunity to change the national conversation and bring new platforms to the forefront. Some of the United States' most enduring policies, from the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s to the Great Society in the 1960s to the "Axis of Evil" in the 2000s, were first iterated at these addresses.

In recent years, responses to the address have often made as much news as the actual content of the speeches. When members of Congress and other high-profile political figures in the audience heckle, boo, or even fall asleep, it can be just as newsworthy as a new policy initiative.

Here's a look back at some of the most memorable moments in SOTU history:

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Comments

[snakeman]

11:34 AM on 01/29/2012

Hey Alito, who's your daddy ? Obama, that's who !

[vicla1942]

10:58 PM on 01/24/2012

Alito Thomas and Scalia did not show up.Maybe they
were in the parking lot stealing cars.

[MarieB]

08:06 PM on 01/24/2012

Still not true Alito? The President called it correctly.

[lulubelle1956]

07:50 PM on 01/24/2012

The examples given make the GOP/tp look and sound like drunken sleepers and ranters

[dutchgirl55]

11:01 PM on 01/24/2012

That's about right.

[DennyCrane]

07:49 PM on 01/24/2012

Does Alito still say "not true" about Citizens United?

[Eye2amAmerican]

07:32 PM on 01/24/2012

During the 2010 State of the Union, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words "not true," in response to President Barack Obama's statement that the Court's ruling in the Citizens United case had "open[ed] the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections."

GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT?!!!!!!!!!!!................PRESIDENT OBAMA....AS USUAL.......

what's curious is that no 'journalist' has approached justice Alito and asked him about citizens united effect as it stands today?........

[Cyke101]

07:41 PM on 01/24/2012

Oddly enough, when faced against Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich voiced the same concern about Citizens United a few weeks ago -- then used the ruling to his advantage soon after. But yeah, if Alito maintains that it's not true, then why do two very public faces of the opposite parties both saying that it is, in fact, true?

[sonja121733]

04:57 PM on 01/24/2012

I tried BO's way the more I spent the farther in debt I got. BO tell me when do I get out of the hole ??

[Knowbetter]

05:42 PM on 01/24/2012

I recommend you learn grade school-level grammar before you try to tackle college-level economics.

[bd7769]

08:55 PM on 01/24/2012

so you think that only those who go to college are able to be successful?

[clivechristy]

06:34 PM on 01/24/2012

Perhaps next you can try to read...because something tells me you are going to be in the hole for a looooooong time.

[sonja121733]

04:49 PM on 01/24/2012

Well I guess its fairy tale time again. I wonder who is going to call him a liar this time ???

[Prankster]

02:58 PM on 01/24/2012

Alito is a dooooosh, just like Roberts, Scalia and Thomas!

[judesuper]

02:35 PM on 01/24/2012

Well now you know why I call johny mc drool.

Since he's spent his entire senate career drooling on his shirt!

[AZterritory]

01:45 PM on 01/24/2012

McCain has been sleepwalking the last 15 years (at least), and when he's awake, it's almost worse.

[vicla1942]

10:59 PM on 01/24/2012

He was up past his bedtime.

[Vquest95]

01:05 PM on 01/24/2012

I will never forget G.W. Bush's last SOTU speech, in which listed all things that he would do the last year of his presidency. While I forget all the details, I had to wonder why he hadn't done them in the previous 7 years of his administration.

[littlepuffycloud]

01:37 PM on 01/24/2012

I wondered why McCain wouldn't tell the rest of the country where OBL was since McCain vowed he knew how to catch OBL and 'would go to the gates of hell' to catch him.

[demisfine]

03:17 PM on 01/24/2012

My Friend.

[BoxcarPete]

12:39 PM on 01/24/2012

When Alito mouthed, "Not true," he was lying. Moreover, he was disrespecting President Obama.
Interesting: Newt recently said he dislikes the Citizens United decision that gave us superpacs, but his odd and not surprising solution is to allow candidates to take in unlimited contributions. He should be for campaign finance reform but Republicans, with their unpopular policies of helping only the rich, must rely on wealthy benefactors now more than ever.

[sivachok]

02:15 PM on 01/24/2012

It is immaterial for a man to be respected by people belonging to vested interests. One must stand by the weak but honest, the strenuous but not successful worldly-wise, and one must listen to his still small voice that is the shadow of the Lord. Mr. Barrack Obama does all these. His tolerance must have been responsible for his association with the "God-curse... "-pastor. He does not all need the respect of a judge. The holy St. Theresa served the poor and helpless Indians. While the self-styled secular Congress Party did not recognize this holy lady's service for decades, the much-maligned-as-Hindu-biased Bharathiya Janatha Party honored itself by conferring on her the greatest title of the land 'Bharatha Rathna, the great jewel of India. To crown it all, the Pope conferred sainthood on her. If Mr. Barrack Obama were not there, millions of Americans would already have passed away. In Hinduism, the very poor but morally upright people are called 'dharidhra Naraayana' (the Lord in poverty).

[Knowbetter]

05:45 PM on 01/24/2012

I don't understand what you're trying to say, but please don't bother explaining. Religion is silly.

[SuperHeretic]

05:57 PM on 01/24/2012

Mother Theresa's goal was not to help the Indians. She provided no medication. She simply gave people a place to suffer and die.

It was her goal. She thought suffering brought people closer to god. The money she raised for the catholic church rarely... if EVER... made its way to those people in pain.

That's pretty despicable.

Here's an account from one of the nuns who was working under her. It's very a very.... ahem... 'damning' article.

http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/shields_18_1.html

So try to avoid brining religion into conversations next time. Especially if you don't know what you're talking about.

[clivechristy]

06:35 PM on 01/24/2012

Well few people are in a better position to understand untruths than Alito who is himself a liar.

[Democrat in the South]

10:37 AM on 01/24/2012

I wonder if old dubya was thinking ahead to the time just a few short years from 2005 when the republican economy would collapse and millions of people would be out work and may never work again and their Social Security would have been tied up in a collapsed stock market that ate their retirement? Dubya looks like more of a fool now then even he did then.

Democrats saved our a$$e$ by keeping dubya and his minions from eating our retirement.

Howard Dean said it best when he said something like; "You CAN NOT trust republicans with your money. They will just give it to the rich".

[schrodster]

12:35 PM on 01/24/2012

You lost me with your first sentence ' I wonder if old dubya was thinking ahead..............'

[judesuper]

02:38 PM on 01/24/2012

WOW! Excellent Democrat in the South. Well said. F&F

""You CAN NOT trust republican­s with your money. " Should be the bumper sticker of this election cycle!

[Democrat in the South]

09:25 PM on 01/24/2012

Thank you. :-)

F&F back to you.

[MosesDidItBest]

10:14 AM on 01/24/2012

Alito should have never been approved to sit on the Supreme Court, that goes for Roberts, Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas. They put America up for grabs to the highest bidder.

Citizens United is a disaster for freedom, democracy and the 99% who comprise America.

Under Nixon, Reagan and Bush we saw the slow and inevitable destruction of an American way of life that was a dream to immigrants from around the world, that dream was shattered by unstoppable, unregulated greed. Thanks to the GOP, the banks, wall street and the military industrial complex.

Alito is a stooge.

[Colton B]

02:16 PM on 01/24/2012

I may be statistically lumped into the 99 percent with you, but I do not consider myself one of you. So please speak for yourself jabberjaw.

[Prankster]

03:00 PM on 01/24/2012

Jabberjaw? Who asked you?!

[cribbisque]

03:08 PM on 01/24/2012

Fanned!

[judesuper]

02:39 PM on 01/24/2012

I am with you mosesdiditbest! You are absolutely correct! F&F