A night with U.S. lawmakers and the president

A picture of me inside the press gallery as captured by the Washington Post

In Ghana, it is called the State of the Nation address, but here, it is called the State of the Union address. They mean the same thing, though, and both are enshrined in the countries’ constitutions. One similarity is that each president gives his address before lawmakers.
The State of the Nation address in Ghana, ever since the inception of the 1992 constitution, has always been read in the morning, when workers are busily at work and students are in school. Many Ghanaians, therefore, lose the opportunity to watch the president deliver his State of the Nation address.
In the U.S., the president’s speech to lawmakers is a big deal. There are five different time zones in the U.S., and the president tries to make his speech at a time when as many American as possible can watch or listen to it, usually 9 p.m. Eastern Time. It is a prime-time event with millions across the nation watching.
And so when my colleagues and I got our credentials to cover the event, we were very happy. We were happy because there wasn’t as much pressure on us as reporters as there was during the inauguration. I was personally happy because I was going to cover my first State of the Union and it was going to be President Barack Obama’s first such speech of his second term and the fourth of his presidency.
After we were ushered into the press gallery, I made sure I got a seat where I could see the president and other guests. In Ghana, when the president makes a very remarkable statement, the closest signs of approval he gets are shouts of “Hear, Hear” from the members. In the U.S., members clap and give the president standing ovations.
The stakes were high, and people were expecting Obama to deliver and he did just that. We got the full text of his speech a few minutes before he started. Of course, there was nothing journalists could do because it was embargoed, meaning we could not report on it until he said it. His comments on gun control, which he made toward the end, attracted the loudest cheers, applause and the longest standing ovations. Perhaps he was saving the best for the last.
One thing I noticed was that a lot of the journalists were tweeting almost every statement the president made, so it was no wonder this year’s speech had more than 760,000 tweets.
When it was all over, I was happy and learned a lot of things about American politics. Some of the president’s most avowed critics applauded when they had to. I doubt if this would ever happen in Ghana without the politician being tagged as a traitor by his or her own party members.
When Obama came to Ghana in 2009, a lot of government officials, including cabinet members, were seen taking photographs of him. They were criticized by the media for doing that. On Tuesday many American lawmakers were taking photos of the president with their phones or iPads.
I wondered what the reaction would have been if parliamentarians in Ghana started taking photographs of President John Mahama in the chamber of the house, but American lawmakers did that with ease.

A picture of me just before I entered the chamber

My colleagues and I did not take photographs of the president at the speech because our credentials did not give us permission, and indeed, with rare exception, journalists are not allowed to take photographs in the chamber of the Senate or the House of Representatives.

We took some photos outside the House chamber, and I woke up to see a photograph of me and my colleague Amy Slanchik in the Washington Post (second row on the right) perhaps to tell me, “You don’t worry about taking pictures, we’ll do it for you.”  It was a nice experience that will stay in my mind for a long time. As for that copy of the Washington Post, I will keep it and show it to my great grandchildren.