The state of the union address should be short and sweet. At the beginning of the address, the president should ask everyone to hold applause until the end.
A. This will keep the speech to a reasonable length. If you want a larger audience, don't waste people's time by filling it with partisan applause.
B. The applause seems to be staged to show party stances on issues. If someone is already watching the address, it's probably safe to assume they are informed enough to know which statements they agree with.
C. Saving the applause until the end will probably result in everyone clapping/standing at the same time. This will show a more unified government.
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
