In the warm glow of post-election harmony, it's likely to be a night full of declarations of bipartisanship and cooperation - followed by months of political gamesmanship and hard negotiations.
"Judging by the previous ones, it's just not going to be memorable or terribly important," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.
"In his entire four years in office," Sabato said, "he has only uttered one phrase that will be historically memorable: 'The era of big government is over.'" That was in 1996 as Clinton opened the campaign year. "It was a critical moment for him in his political rebirth," Sabato said. "He's had one home run."
"It's the nature of the flood of political communications," said Brookings Institution analyst Tom Mann. "These are one of many speeches given over the course of the year. No one can be memorable that many times."
Mann said Clinton had a mixed record with these addresses. "Set speeches are not the president's strength. He's much better responding more spontaneously and extemporaneously."
But after four years, there is a record of victories and defeats.
On the loser list was the colossal collapse of Clinton's sweeping plan to guarantee health insurance for every American. Another major casualty was the president's $30- billion economic stimulus program.
But the president also has a respectable record of achievement from the stack of proposals he's carried to Capital Hill. Hill.After his maiden speech to Congress in February 1993, Clinton won a $500 billion deficit reduction package, combining one of the biggest tax increases in history with deep spending cuts. The program put the government on a path toward four straight years of declining budget deficits. This year, however, it's expected to resume climbing.
In his first two years, after Clinton's pleas to Congress, lawmakers passed the Brady gun-control law, the family and medical leave act, a scaled-down national service program, the motor voter registration act, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a direct loan program for college students and a crime bill to put 100,000 cops on the street.
The president's program stalled in 1995 after the Republicans threw the Democrats from power in Congress, taking control of the legislative agenda and shaking Clinton's confidence. The president opened the year with a State of the Union address that droned on for 81 minutes. Before it was over, about 20 Republicans had walked out.
A year of veto battles and budget fights ensued, climaxing in two government shutdowns that voters blamed on Republicans.
By the time he returned to Capitol Hill in January 1996, Clinton was back in fighting form, lecturing the Republicans about their stands on welfare, tax cuts, the minimum wage health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, environmental cleanup, crime-fighting and foreign policy.
He told the GOP that it should "never, ever" shut the government again. The Republicans now agree.
Clinton asked Congress for $1,000 college scholarships for the top 5 percent of graduates from every high school. The proposal was ignored.
But the president got a good share of his requests in a surge of pre-election activity as lawmakers tried to show voters that they could really get things done.
The Republicans passed a tough welfare bill and Clinton signed it, promising to come back this year with changes to soften it.