An Utterly Unremarkable Address

There were some nice patriotic touches, a passel of small proposals, and old ideas like soaking the rich in President Obama’s State of the Union Address. But mostly the speech consisted of an effort to make a big deal out of not much.

Like many State of the Union speeches, this one was a bit of an anti-climax. It turns out the speech Obama delivered in Osawatomie, Kansas, in December, was more indicative of his thinking about 2012, his reelection year. In that one, he didn’t pull his partisan punches. Last night, he did.