President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union Address tonight will be “non-traditional,” according to the White House. As CNN put it, “Obama will be talking about himself, not asking Congress for a long list of items he knows he’ll never get.”

The President himself previewed tonight’s event in dramatic fashion on Monday. Set in the Oval Office and scored with a gospel organ, the black-and-white video finds Obama sharing his heart: “What I want to focus on in this State of the Union address (is) not just the remarkable progress we’ve made, not just what I want to get done in the year ahead, but what we all need to do together in the years to come.”

Striking a tone somewhere between preacher and football coach, he continues: “I want us to be able, when we walk out this door, to say we couldn’t think of anything else that we didn’t try to do. That we didn’t shy away from a challenge because it was hard. That we weren’t timid or got tired or somehow thinking about the next thing, because there is no next thing.” (Unless reports this week are true that Obama wants to be the next United Nations Secretary-General.)

Watch @POTUS reflect on his final State of the Union address and tune in tomorrow at 9pm ET: https://t.co/7ZgBUWI9cz https://t.co/uwE7JrpQyF

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 11, 2016

Although the point of the whole Constitutionally-mandated exercise is to inform Congress of the state of the union, and the President speaks only at the invitation of Congress, Congress won’t be his target audience. “In fact,” says ABC News, “he probably wouldn’t care if they didn’t show up at all.”

The Guest List

Who is showing up is drawing almost as much attention as what the President is going to say. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has invited two leaders from the Little Sisters of the Poor, who are challenging the ObamaCare birth control mandate before the Supreme Court. Ryan’s also invited four-year-old, Logan Barritt who broke open his piggy bank to send Christmas presents to soldiers overseas. The Speaker wants to show that “kids can be heroes, too.”

Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, who went to jail rather than sign off on same-sex marriage, will also be in the gallery, as will Cheryl Bennett, mother of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, one of the four men killed at Benghazi.

The Democrats are bringing their own share of symbolic guests. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, invited Muslim-American physician Mohsin Jaffer to counter the “hateful rhetoric” against Muslims. California’s Barbara Lee is bringing Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garzia.

The theatrics continue with the President himself. He’s leaving an empty chair in the First Lady’s guest box to symbolize the victims of gun violence “who no longer have a voice.” Sen. John McCain countered today that Obama should leave another chair empty for the “250,000 Syrians that have been slaughtered, and barrel bombed, and starved to death, and tortured by Bashar Assad thanks to his failed policy.” Earlier, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a presidential candidate, also blasted Obama’s empty chair gesture and said, “If I’m elected POTUS, there’ll be an empty seat for the over 50 million unborn children killed since Roe #Stand4Life.”

What We, the People, Want to See

While the President plans to focus on the glories of his tenure, the American people want something more.

According to a Morning Consult poll, most Americans want President Obama to focus on ISIS in his address tonight. In fact, 83% say it is important for Obama to discuss the terrorist organization, 62% saying it’s “very important,” while 26% say it is the most important issue he should be addressing. Despite such concerns, don’t expect too much of an emphasis tonight on the Islamic State. The New York Times is reporting that the President is saying that ISIS “did not threaten the United States in a fundamental way.”

From the poll, percentage of people dubbing eight other topics “the most important” for Obama to discuss:

• 20% — Improving the economy and creating jobs
• 13% — Providing “clear direction and leadership” for the country
• 7% — Reducing gun violence
• 7% — Improving the health care system
• 6% — Reducing poverty in the United States
• 4% — Improving race relations in the United States
• 3% — Combating climate change
• 2% — Reducing global poverty

Talking about his own accomplishments doesn’t seem to have made the list.

What Else to Keep an Eye Out For

Half of those surveyed said they plan to watch tonight’s State of the Union. Some 31.7 million tuned in last year, down from the 52 million who saw President Obama’s first State of the Union address. The White House has been making a strong social media push to draw viewers, including unveiling on Monday a new Snapchat account that will offer a behind-the-scenes look at tonight’s festivities.

The White House is also promising tonight’s speech will be tight. Still, even at his most long-winded — 69 minutes in 2010 — Obama hasn’t come anywhere near President Clinton’s 89-minute epic in 2000.

People watching will once again be a favored pastime of State of the Union viewers. This year, all eyes will be on brand new Speaker Paul Ryan. Will he sit stone-faced like his predecessor John Boehner or stare in wide-eyed wonder like previous speaker Nancy Pelosi? Will there be an outburst like Republican Joe Wilson’s infamous “You lie!” in 2013 or Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s surprising “That’s not true!” in 2010? Will there be an interruption from the galley?

Perhaps we’ll find our attention diverted, as in 1997 when the State of the Union found itself competing against the imminent verdict in the O.J. Simpson civil trial.

Or perhaps we’ll even be treated to a line that will resonate in history, like Bill Clinton’s pledge that “The era of big government is over” or George W. Bush’s description of the “axis of evil.”

And if you don’t like what you hear from the president, you can always hang around to hear the other party’s official response, this year delivered by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

We’ll find out at 9:00 p.m. eastern, 8 p.m. central, when we hear those still-stirring words from the House Sergeant at Arms: “Mr. Speaker, The President of the United States!”