(Newser) – President Obama delivered a feisty, populist State of the Union address last night (excerpts here, pictures here), and naturally pundits are dissecting and grading it today. Here’s what they’re saying:
•”Obama had a simple message for Republicans: Game on,” writes Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post. What on the surface was a typical post-partisan Obama speech was actually full of populist challenges to Republicans. “This is Obama version 2.0: Harder, more cynical but perhaps also more effective.”
•Noted “Obamacon” Andrew Sullivan was disappointed, trashing the speech as a hodge-podge of liberal policies. “I was hoping for a vision. I was hoping for real, strategic reform,” he lamented in his Daily Beast liveblog. “We voted for Obama; now we find we got another Clinton.”
•Steve Kornacki of Salon dubs it Obama’s “99% speech,” because the president drew battle lines around income inequality. “He’s embracing the idea that there is [a] fundamental philosophical divide between the parties,” convinced that it’s “political suicide” to attempt compromise with intractable Republicans.
•Mark Halperin of Time gives the speech a “B,” saying Obama that Obama “achieved a good balance between lofty and accessible” and was “fully in command of policy,” but that “the speech was clearly poll-tested to within an inch of its life.”
Caseclosed2: After last nights Presidential State of the Union Speech, President Obama doesn’t have anything to worry about. He will be re elected. The president brought it last night. He showed us how he does it and it was good and informative. Obama let the American People know the Republicans haven’t been cooperating with him in doing what is best for the American People. The president put it out there. He has dirt on some who have been insider trading and making millions. So they know who they are and they should be willing to cooperate with the president, or it will be put out there for all to see. Ahhh,I love our president….The Man, The Myth, The Legend
