Washington (CNN) It's the hardest act in town to follow: the leader of the free world, framed by his Vice President and the Speaker of the House, delivering what is usually a fairly rousing address to both houses of Congress.

Joni Ernst, the Republican Party's latest rising star in the Senate, will do just that Tuesday, tapped by the GOP to deliver the rebuttal to Obama's State of the Union address.

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She'll likely sit or stand, alone, facing a camera, countering the President's policy proposals and implicitly -- or pretty openly -- reminding Americans that partisanship is alive and well.

Throw in the fact that fewer Americans watch the State of the Union -- and even fewer the opposition party's response -- and 10 minutes of uninterrupted national TV time doesn't seem so glossy anymore, especially when so much has gone wrong in recent years.

"It's almost like the kiss of death to get picked to do the Republican response," said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "It represents an amazing opportunity to catapult yourself into the national conversation, but the risk is huge and the success rate has been minimal at best in recent years."

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