This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
One interesting aspect of President Barack Obama's recent State of the Union address was watching the audience reaction to specific issues. He was interrupted with applause 83 times, largely along party lines.
Toward the end, he turned to the issue of our broken voting process. He pointed to Desiline Victor, a 102-year-old black woman who last fall waited hours to vote in her Florida district. As the television camera showed her sitting in the gallery next to Michelle Obama, there was nearly uniform recognition of her dedication to democracy. It brought a tear to my eye.
One person not standing or clapping was stone-faced House Speaker John Boehner. He had been disrespectfully passive during Obama's talk. I guess Boehner's well-known proclivity for tears in emotional settings is a tad disingenuous: He can turn it off and on at will.
Louis Borgenicht
Salt Lake City