The bottom line seems to be defiance. He doubled down on healthcare, climate-related legislation (incredible!), banks and extended his ambitions to destroying free-trade. Stylistically I think the speech was forced and even strained--like bad stage acting. It was so divorced from reality that I can't imagine anyone according it their credulity. The contradictions were risible at points. To be fair though, Obama was up against a steep, steep challenge; present an upbeat, optimistic SOTU and a governing agenda for the next year. He's good, but he's not Jesus.

When you consider the audience, Obama is unlikely to have done much to buck-up the Democrat congress. The every-man (or woman)-for themselves climate is going to predominate over the next year and its virtually impossible to imagine any significant legislative achievements coming out of this session.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I believe the media is hedging their bets. They are going to wait for the polls to see which way the wind is blowing. No doubt Obama's bagmen are already arranging for suitably 'engineered' polls to show a bump, but that only works when the media is already in your corner and eager for any evidence to back up the desired narrative.

Finally--the American public. If you disapproved of Obama before, you are unlikely to have changed your mind much, since essentially nothing has changed. Nothing in the speech suggested that he was ready to cede any ground, and he in fact called for Republicans to help him with his agenda. If you are philosophically attuned to the big-government, socialist agenda of the Obama administration, you probably liked the speech, all the while wondering if it was going to help. If you're in the middle, and I count myself in that group, I think we realized that the campaign season was just kicked off. Nothing happened to remedy the economic problems last year, and nothing is going to happen this year either.

Welcome to the next "Great Depression."
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Just waiting for the standing-O now...

Everybody is the enemy, but Barack is our friend--change we can believe in.

Obama is apparently running for President again. He wants a do-over. Has the nerve to complain about 'the perpetual campaign'.

There is no point in continuing. The dichotomy between this high-minded rhetoric about bipartisanship, the interest of the nation, etc..., etc... stands in such sharp contrast to the corruption, arrogance and self-dealing associated with this administration and Congress, that its an insult to any informed person's intelligence to listen to this crap. This is the most political SOTU speech I've ever heard.

7:50PM-It's Bush's fault.

7:45PM-He says he still wants to do healthcare. Like I said, its as if the last year never happened.

7:38PM-Uh oh. I think I just heard code for trade barriers...

7:37PM-Promise to double exports. No doubt in the new 'planned economy'.

7:36PM-He just got laughed at when referring to the 'overwhelming evidence for global warming..."

7:21PM-'I thought I'd get applause for that one...' Obama seems to have forgotten that his real audience isn't in the room. The 'love' he's getting from Congressional Democrats is a mirage, and he should remember that.

7:20PM-'Screw the banks' gets a standing 'O'.

7:15PM-Its like the past year never happened...

Hillary Clinton is 'out of the country'. I don't think that's a coincidence. I see signs that she is doing what she can to distance herself from Obama, and she certainly doesn't want to be seen on camera either too enthusiastic about her boss's speech, or insufficienctly so.

The speech was being rewritten until two hours ago. That's a pretty good sign that they are winging it, trying to substitute soaring rhetoric substance. Judging from the prefacing remarks by the talking heads on Fox and CNN, they think the public (meaning themselves...) are looking for substance. We'll see...