President Bill Clinton’s State of the Union Address Tuesday showed how deep the partisan split is between the president and Congress while establishing the groundwork for his campaign, some SIUC professors say.

James Prescott, political science professor, said typically the speaker of the house would clap, out of politeness during the speech. However Prescott said Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich did not clap often and showed a lack of attention.

The speech showed the depth of the ideological differences when the polite traditions are ignored, he said.

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Jim McOmber, speech communication professor, said Clinton attempted to align himself with the people by challenging the Republicans to act on the budget instead of saying that he would accomplish the things on his agenda.

The president emerged as someone on the sidelines, like a voter urging the Republicans to do something, he said.

He said this strategy is a way of removing the fault of budget indecision from himself and placing it on the Republicans.

Clinton asked the Republicans to act on things, such as the Americorps program, that he knows they want to cut, McOmber said. This way when they are cut, he can blame the Republicans, or if they are spared he can take the credit.

Congressional Republicans and White House Democrats have failed to pass a balanced budget that resulted in shutting down the federal government twice, each time furloughing some government workers.

Prescott said Clinton appeared to say there was unity between Congress and the White House, telling the voters that problems were close to solutions.

He was not accusatory. He took the moral high ground, he said.

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During the speech Clinton pointed out a government worker who he called a hero because the worker had rescued victims of the Oklahoma bombing. Clinton said during the government shutdown, this man was furloughed. The president said the government should never be shutdown again because heroes were laid off from their jobs. McOmber said this use of an emotional appeal put the Republicans in a compromising position.

If the Republicans did not clap, they would be saying that this man was not a hero, he said. By clapping they were supporting what Clinton said about shutting down the government without being able to voice their objections.

Clinton failed to mention that the man who lost his job did receive back-pay when the government shutdown ended, Prescott said.

Lucinda K. McKinney, political science professor, said the speech was not effective and symbolized the rift between the parties.

The speech did not make a difference to the Republicans, she said. They did not care about what he said.

Prescott said he thought Clinton was sincere in his speech, and he said the president accomplished what the chief executive said he wanted to do.

I believe he did a very good job, Prescott said. He accentuated the positive and gave a well-delivered speech.