I am Ari Melbra and welcome to the Beats' State of the Union coverage.

President Biden now just hours away from delivering the annual address.

White House aides are touting what they say could be an aspirational, positive, and almost classy address, taking the high road.

We know Biden spent the weekend working on Drafts at Camp David, AIDS eyeing ways to tout.

What they see is the administration's breaking records on job growth and navigating this post-pandemic economy

and laying the groundwork for an official campaign announcement. Those are just some of the

images we've seen coming out of the White House operation. There's also the extensive security,

the extra fences going up at the Capitol today.

This is just two years after the violent insurrection.

All three branches of government represented on-site with top officials.

It is always a security challenge as well.

Now, I'll tell you this, straight up.

The media and viewing habits do evolve. We are in this

digital era. But we also know that tonight matters in a very real way, even if you're not a news junkie.

The State of the Union breaks through more than any other scheduled address. The nightly audience,

for the top cable news networks, for example, numbers several million.

Biden's speech last year, we checked. It reached almost 40 million Americans.

That just means that many more people who might not be hearing the president regularly or at length will hear from him tonight.

And that's why the night can create such memorable moments.

The era of big government is over.

I have no more campaigns to run.

My only agenda.

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