Historically the President's annual State of the Union Speech is given in the latter half of January. Here we are at the half-way point of the month and the date for Obama's first SotU speech hasn't even been been announced. [source]

Typically the President uses the speech to trumpet the accomplishments of the Executive and Legislative branches and to propose his Administration's initiatives and legislative proposals for the upcoming year.

Perhaps the President and Congressional leaders are waiting to set the date until after they have a health insurance reform bill that will pass both the House and Senate? Or maybe they are waiting until after Tuesday to see whether the result of the Mass. special election makes it a moot point?

After Obama covers his pretty thin list of accomplishments in the speech [[or attempts to excuse it more more time with a "remember, I inherited a mess from Bush"), watch for him to reiterate his intentions to pivot and focus like a laser beam on a second attempt to fix the economy and the festering unemployment problem. Too bad for us that he didn't let his Administration and Congress do that sooner instead of getting bogged down on health insurance reform..