The White House has found a new way to cite President Obama's actions on issues ranging from Medicare and Social Security to energy, trade, taxes, veterans and civil rights -- by linking from the biographies of former presidents on the White House website. 
 
 Click on almost any president since Calvin Coolidge, scroll to the bottom of his official bio, and you'll find one or two references to something Obama has done to carry on that president's achievements. 
 
 The additions -- first noted in a tweet from the conservative Heritage Foundation, then picked up by the neoconservative magazine Commentaryand given broader attention by ABC's Jake Tapper -- spurred a reaction from the Republican National Committee. 
 
 On its Tumblr account, the RNC has pictured Obama in "world-changing events you didn't know Obama played a part in." Here you can see Obama landing in the New World with Christopher Columbus, attending Napolean's coronation, guest-lecturing with Albert Einstein and hanging out with Elvis and the Beatles. 
 
 White House officials point out that the official biographies are not altered in any way. The links after them take readers to other places on the White House web site via "Did you know?" tabs. 
 
 Some of the historical references are innocuous. For instance, after Coolidge's bio, the White House added this: 
 
 On Feb. 22, 1924, Calvin Coolidge became the first president to make a public radio address to the American people. President Coolidge later helped create the Federal Radio Commission, which has now evolved to become the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). President Obama became the first president to hold virtual gatherings and town halls using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. 
 
 Jump all the way to George W. Bush, and you get another reference to social media: 
 
 In 2002, President George W. Bush's State of the Union was the first to be live broadcast on the Internet. In 2011 and 2012, President Obama's State of the Union speeches were available in an enhanced live stream version that featured infographics, charts and data side-by-side in real time with the President's speech. 
 
 But in between, the references to Obama -- complete with hyperlinks that take you elsewhere on the White House website -- clearly highlight efforts the White House would like noted, such as fighting to protect Medicare and Social Security or expanding the rights of gays and veterans. ||||| Calvin Coolidge 
 
 At 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that he was President. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible. 
 
 Coolidge was "distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement," wrote a Democratic admirer, Alfred E. Smith. "His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history ... in a time of extravagance and waste...." 
 
 Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered law and politics in Northampton, Massachusetts. Slowly, methodically, he went up the political ladder from councilman in Northampton to Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. En route he became thoroughly conservative. 
 
 As President, Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying. He refused to use Federal economic power to check the growing boom or to ameliorate the depressed condition of agriculture and certain industries. His first message to Congress in December 1923 called for isolation in foreign policy, and for tax cuts, economy, and limited aid to farmers. 
 
 He rapidly became popular. In 1924, as the beneficiary of what was becoming known as "Coolidge prosperity," he polled more than 54 percent of the popular vote. 
 
 In his Inaugural he asserted that the country had achieved "a state of contentment seldom before seen," and pledged himself to maintain the status quo. In subsequent years he twice vetoed farm relief bills, and killed a plan to produce cheap Federal electric power on the Tennessee River. 
 
 The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone.... And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy...." 
 
 Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more." 
 
 But no President was kinder in permitting himself to be photographed in Indian war bonnets or cowboy dress, and in greeting a variety of delegations to the White House. 
 
 Both his dry Yankee wit and his frugality with words became legendary. His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose." And in 1928, while vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he issued the most famous of his laconic statements, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." 
 
 By the time the disaster of the Great Depression hit the country, Coolidge was in retirement. Before his death in January 1933, he confided to an old friend, ". . . I feel I no longer fit in with these times." 
 
 The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. 
 
 Learn more about Calvin Coolidge 's spouse, Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Since the tradition of a State of the Union address began in the late 18th century, only a few presidents have not delivered their final speech in person. 
 
 FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2015, file photo, President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington as Vice Presient Joe Biden and House... (Associated Press) 
 
 Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter all sent written copies of their speeches to Congress. Barack Obama doesn't want to be No. 4. 
 
 Instead, he will deliver his final State of the Union address at the Capitol on Tuesday, about a week earlier than usual. 
 
 "Since I took office seven years ago in the midst of crisis, I don't think I've ever been more optimistic about a year ahead than I am right now," Obama said in a video previewing the speech. 
 
 Some questions and answers about the State of the Union address: 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Why is the president giving the speech? 
 
 A: The Constitution requires that the president "from time to time give the Congress information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Who delivered the first State of the Union address? 
 
 A: George Washington on Jan. 8, 1790 in New York. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Does it have to be a speech? 
 
 A: No. For his first address on Dec. 8, 1801, Thomas Jefferson sent written copies to both houses of Congress to be read by each chamber's clerks. Jefferson wanted to simplify what he believed was an aristocratic imitation of the British monarch's speech from the throne, which he thought ill-suited for a republic. The practice of sending written copies to Congress continued for more than a century. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Who resumed delivering the annual message in person? 
 
 A: Woodrow Wilson, on April 8, 1913. He's also credited with transforming the speech from a report on executive branch activity into a blueprint for the president's legislative agenda for the year. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: When did the annual message become known as the "State of the Union" address? 
 
 A: Franklin D. Roosevelt applied the constitutional phrase "State of the Union" to both the message and the event. It became the popular terminology from then on. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: How has the speech been affected by advances in communications technology? 
 
 A: Calvin Coolidge delivered the first speech broadcast on radio in 1923. Harry Truman's address in 1947 was the first broadcast on television. Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the importance of having a national audience when he moved the speech from midafternoon to 9 p.m. in 1965 to attract the largest number of TV viewers. George W. Bush's 2002 speech was the first available as a live webcast on the White House website. 
 
 Obama used social media to help power his presidential campaigns, and he's used Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and YouTube to promote his State of the Union addresses. Obama devotes a page on the White House website to the speech. This year, the White House is using the online annotation platform Genius to revisit Obama's past State of the Union speeches by adding context and commentary. It's also using Snapchat and Amazon Video to bring Tuesday's address to the "people where they are." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Has the speech ever been postponed? 
 
 A: Ronald Reagan's 1986 address was postponed after the Challenger space shuttle exploded in flight on Jan. 28 of that year. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Is there a State of the Union speech every year? 
 
 A: No. Each of the past five presidents — Reagan in 1981, George H.W. Bush in 1989, Bill Clinton in 1993, George W. Bush in 2001 and Obama in 2009 — chose not to give an official State of the Union address their first year in office. That speech would have come soon after their inaugural addresses. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Has the State of the Union speech always been delivered in person since Wilson resumed the practice? 
 
 A: No. Truman sent his final message in print, as did Eisenhower in 1961 and Carter in 1981. As Eisenhower recovered from a heart attack in 1956, he prepared a seven-minute, filmed summary of the message from his retreat in Key West, Florida, that was broadcast nationwide. Richard Nixon sent a printed message in 1973; his staff said an oral message would have come too soon after his second inaugural address. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Which presidents didn't deliver a State of the Union message? 
 
 A: William Henry Harrison, who died 32 days after his inauguration in 1841, and James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881 after 199 days in office. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Q: Who sits with the first lady? 
 
 A: The White House invites people whose personal stories help highlight a particular issue or public policy. Reagan was the first in 1982 to invite special guests and recognize them during the speech. Every president since has continued the tradition. With gun violence drawing increased attention from Obama, one seat in Michelle Obama's guest box will be left empty in memory of victims of gun violence, the White House said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Source: Congressional Research Service, White House. 
 
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 Online: 
 
 State of the Union: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sotu 
 
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 Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap . Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/darlene-superville
– History is written by the winners, and in this case by the winner of the 2008 presidential election: Take a gander at almost any presidential biography on WhiteHouse.gov from Calvin Coolidge on up, and you'll find a "Did You Know?" section that somehow, some way, links their achievements to President Obama's, USA Today reports. Coolidge, for instance, was the first president to make a public radio address; but Obama was the first to hold "virtual gatherings and town halls on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc." These, er, helpful additions were first spotted by the Heritage Foundation, and conservatives are having a field day with them. "No wonder he always seems so proud of himself," quips Sean Mandel of Commentary, who was the first to blog about the insertions. The RNC, meanwhile, has set up a fairly hilarious "Obama in History" Tumblr account, photoshopping the president into everything from the moon landing to Washington's trip across the Delaware.