It was a painfully long and shapeless speech, designed to cheer Democrats and stick his finger in the eyes of Republicans. (He’s not going to let them poison kids with mercury, thank goodness.) He talks about Washington being broken as if he were a passive observer — which I suppose he is. He decries nasty partisanship, as if he had not accused Republicans of putting party over country.

As far as his own policy initiatives, however, it was a shockingly barren speech. But of course, it’s not about governing. It’s about getting re-elected.

State of the Union speeches tend to be long and tend to cover a lot of stuff, right? To us, these criticisms seem off-base. But maybe you have a different view.