--- description: You can trace the arc of President Obama's time in the White House from his State of the Union addresses. title: Watch 7 Years of Obama's State of the Union Addresses image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte56d373d77f4031c/6988783b196cf4cce1039c3a/obama-sotu-7.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [state of the union](/tag/state-of-the-union/) ## state of the union Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch 7 Years of Obama's State of the Union Addresses by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [Joyce Lee](/author/joyce-lee/) Jan 10, 2016 11:00 PM CUT  by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [Joyce Lee](/author/joyce-lee/) Jan 10, 2016 11:00 PM CUT You can trace the arc of President Obama’s time in the White House from his State of the Union addresses. As Obama gets ready to give his eighth and final State of the Union on Tuesday, TIME took a look back at some memorable moments from his past speeches. While his first speeches focused on the urgency of fixing the economy, that was followed by carefully worded notes of optimism as he ran for reelection, then a shift to talking about issues such as the wage gap. But the little moments during the speeches also stand out: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito [mouthing “not true”](http://You can trace the arc of President Obama's time in the White House from his State of the Union addresses. "undefined") as Obama bashes a decision overturning a campaign finance law, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz mimicking a rimshot as Obama [makes a lame joke](http://time.com/3664609/obama-state-union-humor-jokes/ "undefined"), Florida Sen. Marco Rubio [taking an awkward drink of water](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/13/watch-marco-rubios-water-break-during-state-of-the-union-rebuttal/ "undefined") during his response, Obama doing an “exploding fist bump” with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Vice President Joe Biden sending hand signals to someone in the audience and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg [falling asleep](http://time.com/3708792/rbg-sober-sotu/ "undefined"). Watch the video to see all these, and more. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4173542/barack-obama-state-union-address-video-highlights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4173542/barack-obama-state-union-address-video-highlights/"},"headline":"Watch 7 Years of Obama's State of the Union Addresses","datePublished":"2016-01-10T23:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T11:57:40.270Z","description":"In under 3 minutes","url":"https://time.com/4173542/barack-obama-state-union-address-video-highlights/","keywords":["state of the union","Congress","Barack Obama","White House","Ruth Bader Ginsburg","SOTU","time video"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte56d373d77f4031c/6988783b196cf4cce1039c3a/obama-sotu-7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Joyce Lee","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte56d373d77f4031c/6988783b196cf4cce1039c3a/obama-sotu-7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"obama sotu 7","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/state-of-the-union/","name":"state of the union"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4173542/barack-obama-state-union-address-video-highlights/","name":"Watch 7 Years of Obama's State of the Union Addresses"}}]}] ```