During his 2008 campaign, one of Barack Obama’s standard stump speech lines was that he wanted to “turn the page.” At the time, the line was meant to tie into his broader message of change — promising to move the nation on from partisan politics and the wars of the Bush era to a post-partisan paradise. In Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech, Obama returned to the metaphor, this time essentially declaring “mission accomplished.”

Obama opened his speech by saying, “We are fifteen years into this new century. Fifteen years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many. But tonight, we turn the page.”