Making The Rounds

Reactions to President Obama's State of the Union address from last night varied.  Maha just wasn't impressed:

I’m going to guess the pundits will grade this speech in the C+ to B – range, except on Fox News, where it will of course have completely failed.

and

OK, but dude, you’ve got to be more visible, more engaged with what’s going on in Congress.

Anyone else want to grade this? I don’t think the speech itself will have much impact on current political momentum.

Chris Cilizza had a good point on health care reform:

While Obama took a cue from former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton by eating a slice of humble pie after a legislative (or political) setback, he was adamant that health care could not simply fade away in the wake of the Massachusetts special election and challenged Republicans (and Democrats) to bring forward better ideas -- if they had them -- on health care. Left unsaid, of course, is that health care was the President's number one legislative priority and the burden of proof, therefore, rests with him.

E.J. Dionne dissects the speech, but more importantly gets the GOP Plan as well:

Obama had once hoped to be a conciliatory president who heard his critics and his philosophical adversaries. He is still that man. But it was clear that the Obama who addressed the nation on Wednesday understood that he confronts a Republican Party that sees unflinching opposition as blazing a path to victory. We heard a president ready to do battle, and determined to win.

(More after the jump...)

Obama's conservative bipartisanship bent was not lost on Taylor Marsh:

“We face a deficit of trust… close that credibility gap…” with Pres. Obama as ambitious as ever. Climate change? That’s right.

But nuclear energy? Yep. Clean coal? An oxymoron if ever there was one, but Pres. Obama talked about it, delivering a conservative speech for a Democrat. It’s a wonder Gov. Bob McDonnell, who offered the Republican rebuttal, had anything left to say. Obama talking about tax cuts… tax cuts… tax cuts…

But the Wingers are all ignoring the speech entirely (other than calling it lies) and instead they are concentrating on, of all things, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

He apparently mouthed the words "Not true" when Obama hit the Supremes hard on the Citizens United ruling that basically annihilated campaign finance reform.  The Wingers are all rallying behind Alito and trying to change the subject, as usual.

Sad, really.