State of the Union reaction

A lot of stuff, and a lot of good stuff in tonight's speech, which I'm sure will be dissected all over the media for the next few days. My off-the-cuff take:

• The tone was great- Obama came across as above the fray, successfully chiding the squabbling congress (specifically the Senate) and even going after the Supreme Court's recent campaign finance decision. I think he looked loose, comfortable and confident, and successful - and nothing sells like success (or, as Ezra Klein put it, "the best defense is not being on defense")
• Very glad to hear him make a stand on financial reform, and specifically state that he'll veto a bill that doesn't actually accomplish it. I think this is an area where, in the short term, there may be more to gain by vetoing a shoddy bill, because it will show the financial world that he's serious, and allow him to show the GOP as obstructionists.
• I thought the move on climate change and clean energy was great- gently mock the fools who don't believe in climate change, and then engage them with the arguments that, even if they don't believe climate change is real, energy efficiency = saving money and green tech means jobs.
• I like the focus on entrepreneurs and exports - the best way to dig ourselves out of the financial hole is to grow our way out in a sustainable way, and that means building businesses and selling stuff to other countries. Nice to see a Dem who understands that this is important, and that business isn't always the bad guy.
• On the way he handled healthcare reform, I agree with Matt Yglesias: I think he made the right call. The speech is a speech to the American people, especially to people who follow politics pretty casually, and regular people don’t want to hear about congressional process. The reality is that this is going to have to be worked out behind the scenes, behind the dread closed doors. But one of the main points of the speech was to get the focus on Obama and Obama’s themes and off closed door dealmaking. So he emphasized the need for action and correctly situated the call for health reform in a broader context of economics reform.
• The budget freeze is a ridiculous gimmick- in comparison with the overall deficit there's not enough money in discretionary, non-security spending to make any difference, and that spending disproportionately impacts the poor. I think it also falls into the GOP's rhetorical trap that "spending" means social programs, and that social programs are the only things that get cut. I'm all for cutting waste and bad programs, but don't tell me that there's no waste in military or veterans spending (really? we need rudolph the red-nosed laser-plane?)

All in all I think it succeeded in the ultimate goal, which Ezra Klein argues is: The longer-term political project was to put Obama on the side of those who are disgusted by Washington rather than letting him become one of the reasons people are disgusted by Washington. Obama spoke of "the deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works," and Congress's "credibility gap." He hammered the Supreme Court for inviting corporations to consume our politics and lamented the tendency to treat "every day [as] Election Day." He reminded Democrats that "we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills," and then told Republicans that if they insist on filibustering everything, then Scott Brown's election means "the responsibility to govern is now yours as well."