[Wapo] President Obama is hoping absence will speak louder than words on Tuesday.
For his last State of the Union address, he'll be leaving one seat empty in Michelle Obama's guest box "for the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice," according to the White House.
It will be at least the second time a State of the Union seat has been left purposefully empty, reports The Post's Juliet Eilperin. One empty seat in Laura Bush's box in 2003 symbolized "the empty place many Americans will always have at their tables and in their lives because of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001."
Empty chairs are hardly original in politics, though they're not always used in such a formal situation to illustrate such a somber point. |