My take away - the big themes we expected we're all there. The specifics are already being critiqued as micro management or even "paleo-liberal" proposals by Obama's detractors (and some advocates). I wanted to hear a great deal more on the banking industry.
Anyone who reads my work knows that I would prefer a return to the Eisenhower tax crates... which is why knuckle-draggers call me a Communist. Although the right's class warriors are already sharpening their knives, they have nothing here.
On defense, Obama did as much as any President could to stress that the wars are winding down and we should redirect our resources.
There were no major surprises and the President, much to the detriment of GOP interests, appeared... Presidential. We'll be back later with some reactions and will not be live-blogging the Mitch Daniels response. As I reside in Indiana, just outside Chicago, I hear him altogether too frequently as it is.
9:15pm CST And... the State of the Union is still... anyway...
An extraordinary amount of this speech was very carefully designed to deflate his most conservative national security critics.
"Our iron-clad commitment to Israel’s security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history."
There was a heavy dose of American Exceptionalism in there tonight.
