If you count up the words in President Obama’s State of the Union address, he uttered more than 7,000 words last night (at least according to my computer). Given the length of the speech, it’s amazing that he and his speechwriters managed to avoid saying even one word about two pivotal economic issues.

The result is that the speech does not merely rise above politics (as many commentators are noting today) – what could have been a much stronger speech is instead completely disconnected in highly visible ways from issues that the President should have had the courage to address directly.