FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
It used to matter.
The president's State of the Union address used to be a sort of snapshot of where the country stood: How the economy was doing, what was working, and what wasn't.
Now it's just a political speech - a nicely bundled batch of b.s. designed to make the American people feel good about whichever party is peddling it.
And in an election year it will be even worse than usual.
Nevertheless it's an exercise the president has to go through once a year and tomorrow night is the night.
With a captive audience of a joint session of Congress and a national television audience of millions, President Obama will tell us all what a wonderful job he's doing and how great everything is in the country.
He probably won't mention that the country is broke.
He probably won't talk much about the long national nightmare that is the war in Afghanistan.
He's not likely to address the fact that gas prices have doubled since he took office.
He probably won't draw much attention to the fact that the housing crisis still isn't anywhere near being over.
He likely won't mention that the overall standard of living for Americans is in decline.
And I'll bet he won't dwell on the fact that millions and millions of Americans still can't find a job.
Instead he'll likely try to portray whatever problems he addresses as Congress' fault, while at the same time promising that he's going to do much better in the coming year.
The fact of the matter is the state of our union isn't very good.
Here’s my question to you: How confident are you in the state of the union?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 5pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.