Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech was about turning the page. It has been a long six years of bad economic news. Did Obama convince you that the crisis is over and that it’s time to move on to tackle issues facing the middle class?
Ezra Klein writes in Vox that this is the first time that Obama has been able to suggest policies that don’t reflect crisis mode.
James Oliphant writes in the National Journal that the new page looks remarkably like the same old story.
Peter Baker asks in the New York Times whether the speech was a bold vision of liberal ideas or simply a waste of time.
Jonathan Chait writes in New York magazine that Obama’s speech marks the new era of post-recession Democratic politics.
Peter Beinart writes in the Atlantic that while Obama’s domestic-policy narrative hits a climax that his foreign-policy narrative collapses.
Michael Crowley writes in Politico that Obama is leading from the front again.
The GOP’s response to Obama’s policy agenda? The New York Times says, in a word, “No.”
And: GOP House Speaker John Boehner wore the perfect face all night. Here he is after the president celebrated gay rights advances, via Mother Jones.
State of the Union? Yes. Of course. But please, it was not “gritty” prose. It wasn’t even very good prose, and you know exactly why, and Gawker agrees with you: “No one currently involved in speechwriting is ever going to craft a Lincoln’s Second Inaugural or a Washington’s Farewell Address, because speeches of that nature are not considered effective political communication in the 21st century. Modern speechwriters are certainly not doing anything comparable to writing deathless fiction about the realities of the American experience, because it would be weird if a politician delivered stark observations on the human condition instead of trying to make himself appear more acceptable than his political opponents to people who pay attention to presidential speeches once a year.”
In other news, Paris mayor plans to sue Fox News over false reports on Muslim no-go zones. No, seriously. Via New York Times.
So… should we be Charlie Hebdo? Save the Enlightenment from its fundamentalists! Via the Guardian.
The NSA wants all our phone records. Is that really the best way to catch a terrorist. Via the New Yorker.
