Grade the speech. I'd give it an A+

[highplainsdem]

[highplainsdem]

1. Michael Moore is giving it an A-

http://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/162011911125352448

[The Wielding Truth]

4. That very high from Michael and I agree.

[vanlassie]

2. Five Star Speech.

[highplainsdem]

3. Howard Fineman: "This is one of president's best, most combative, substantive, politically shrewd

speeches. Progressive but centrist, partisan but sensible."

From Twitter:

http://twitter.com/howardfineman/status/162005243318636544

[deacon]

5. I don't know how he could do any better. A+

[DevonRex]

6. A+. Nt

[Spazito]

7. I give it a strong A, not quite an A+...

a barn burner of a SOTU address never the less. Enjoyed it very much especially the sour lemon faces of the repubs, their faces were the dessert after a very substantive meal.

[SunsetDreams]

8. A

[Odin2005]

9. Good, solid speech.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

10. Solid A. Not A+! I do not appreciate the President blaming BOTH sides for the gridlock in D.C.

This is all about Republican obstructionism.

[monmouth]

11. Candy Crowley thought he did a great job. Dear God, where are the flying pigs?? n/t

[BlueIris]

12. Meh. C-

Primarily for the painful lack of specifics, a typical problem for this president. I was also annoyed, even offended, by his obvious disengagement, and the snide condescension I usually hear when he speaks. Wasn't surprised by the lackluster response from the audience either. Those people know what is going to happen next, and they are not happy about it.

[CakeGrrl]

55. ...

Given your enduring wish that he step aside, I would've expected an F. I guess that's indicative of his success.

Someone who isn't predisposed to hearing "snide condescension" where there is none might consider that the "lackluster" response was because he called the GOP out on their obstructionist shit and they knew it.

[Arkana]

71. "the snide condescension I usually hear when he speaks".

Thanks for buying into the mother of all GOP talking points. Whatever you may think of Barack Obama, the last thing he is is snide and condescending.

[mvd]

13. B+. Really lost me with endorsing private companies being involved with health care

More combative than usual, but didn't dis-spell all my criticisms.

[unkachuck]

14. I'll give it a: C

....State-of-the-Union? It sounded more like the State-of-the-Corporation to me.

[mvd]

17. Admittedly, I wanted the middle class discussion to go beyond..

just comparing tax rates for the middle class and rich. I also am a bit worried about the Iran rhetoric. Overall, I thought it made a lot of good points, though. Infrastructure, mortgage relief, clean energy, etc.

[hfojvt]

44. myself, I wish he would quit defining the middle class as

"households making less than $250,000 a year"

Uhm, only 2% of households make over $250,000. Those in the 85th to 98th percentile are not in the "middle", not even close.

[Art_from_Ark]

43. It reminded me too much of Reagan's "Morning in America"

although the part about not giving any more $$$$ to bad banks was OK. Not that they really need any more than the trillion$$$$ they've already got from Uncle Sugar, though.

[nanabugg]

15. A++

Audience C+ Including Democrats. There were times when they should have been standing on their feet yelling like hell. Had it been Bush, the Rethugs would still be yelling and applauding.

[joeglow3]

24. That is why I quit watching the SOTU

I hate hearing both sides get up a yell or boo every other sentence. Shut up and listen to what he has to say. I have decided it is much better to read the speech.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. Gentleman's C. Against the populist calls must be

balanced the national chauvinism and saber-rattling.

The Gettysburg Address this ain't.

[JackRiddler]

42. A gentleman's C would be the highest grade any of these president characters ever got from me.

Nice cogent dozen-word summary, by the way:

Against the populist calls must be balanced the national chauvinism and saber-rattling.

And the perpetual growth ideology, and the rigorous adherence to the idea that government exists to serve private capital (in this case: if it's semi-civilized), but should avoid if possible ever hiring anyone in the public sector ever again. These are, of course, perennials, but some will want to take me to task for being so impolite as to still notice such things when the president is a D.

[Johnny2X2X]

18. A

A fantastic speech that will boost him in the polls and really challenges Republicans to come up with their own ideas. It was a great great speech and this will leave Republicans reeling in the coming weeks.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

19. Home Run nt

[mikekohr]

22. Another Home Run, President Obama is like the Bambino, without the strikeouts

[highplainsdem]

29. Yes, it was!

[DCBob]

31. and Mitch Daniels got a bunt hit.

[Scuba]

58. Mitch Daniels struck out looking.

[lonestarnot]

20. A- for the first two points on the war of lies.

[DCBob]

21. agreed. it was the perfect tone given the situation.

Well done Mr President.

[joshcryer]

23. A+, most leftist policy proposals in one speech that he's ever done.

Yes, this is left of any of his 2008 speeches policy-wise.

[RZM]

25. A- . . . very good work. Not perfect but pretty damn good n/t

[arely staircase]

26. A+

he knocked it completely out of the park. he'll eat mittens or nooot alive.

[highplainsdem]

34. Agreed. They're no match for him.

[DCBob]

27. Heres a good metric: John Stossel on Faux just said "Obama was the better salesman"

as compared to Mitch Daniels.

[tallahasseedem]

28. A (took the + away for the milk joke).

[Honeycombe8]

30. A. (not A+) Solid A, though.

[Skinner]

32. A

[Scurrilous]

33. Agreed. n/t

[Denver Progressive]

35. He really did hit it out of the ballpark.

He put the republicans to shame. I liked what I heard tonight. Go Obama!!

[Motown_Johnny]

36. A- (drill baby drill was a deduction for me)

and the fracking crap, plus medicare and social security are on the table again and more offshore drilling



He did a great job but there are some things in there I wish he had left out.

[Melissa G]

64. With you on that.

Adding: The emphasis on private sector health care was another slam against the public option.
While the delivery was excellent and the political savvy high, the progressive substance did not rate as well. B+ for a Dem, A, if he was a Republican.

Noting: One of Obama's favorite devices is to out-Republican, Republicans. He tends to put their ideas on the table first. I don't think this actually works as well in Washington as he thinks it does.

[JitterbugPerfume]

37. Did you see the sour puss look on Cantors face?

That alone deserves a solid A!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

67. yes and it really made me wonder

what is wrong with a human being who is clearly against helping people, fair pay, fair taxation, encouraging job growth, rebuilding infrastructure, ending rewards for outsourcing and robbery? Boner, too...I noticed what he applauded and what he didn't.....

just crazy.


I only wish, when Obama was talking about FDR's years and post WWII compared to now, asking what's different. My immediate thought was that back in those days, traitors intent on rallying hatred against the enemy and destroying the nation, like the propagandists of WWII, were NOT blasting the airwaves 24/7 with messages encouraging violence against fellow US citizens!

[Tarheel_Dem]

38. Agreed! DU Rec.

[madamesilverspurs]

39. A for Awesome

And totally worth it for the times Boehner looked like he was trying to swallow his own face!

[boxman15]

40. A solid A

His milk joke was lame. Michelle had this "Oh God that was terrible" look on her face afterward.

[ellisonz]

41. B+

Some of was a little too boiler-plate. He kinda wandered on education and energy. I thought he could have devoted more time to health insurance reform and made a direct comment on the Tucson shooting. The hug of Giffords was nice, but there were other victims of that day too, and there are victims of gun violence every day. He didn't discuss the political situation in Mexico at all, although he did discuss immigration in broad terms. I'm looking forward to Jacob Lew really getting into the swing, because Bill Daley hasn't been effective.

Overall though it was a very good political speech, though perhaps not so much on policy. I think he certainly put the fear in Mittens, Noot, and the Congressional Republicans.

[hfojvt]

45. Why?

Myself, I got bored by at least 8:40. Too many proposals that I was unsure of without specifics. Like business tax cuts to create jobs.

And other proposals and rhetoric that I just plain do not like - like the stupid payroll tax cut for the rich. And entitlement reform? He still wants to cut social security and medicare?

[joshcryer]

47. Did you watch the enhanced version? His speech was basically talored for it.

If you go to whitehouse channel on YouTube or the WhiteHouse.gov website you can see the replay.

[VKaz]

46. I would give it an A myself

[T S Justly]

48. Unless there's progressive action ...

I'd give it a zero.

[dooner]

49. B+

Many great words... but actions speak louder than words.

[Brother Buzz]

50. In baseball parlance he hit a stand-up triple

[cstanleytech]

51. A for Obama and C for Boehner as he looked constipated during

the speech probably because there was little to nothing he could refute about to the president not that he wont try to spin it still.

[sabrina 1]

52. I would give it an A

first because we heard none of the'deficit/shared sacrifice' or 'SS needs fixing' language that was so prevalent before OWS came into the picture.

I liked his remarks on education, especially the call to stop 'teaching to the test'. This seems to be against what Arne Duncan has been promoting and I hope it is the beginning of the end of NCLB.

I liked what he said about children who were brought here as babies and getting them on the path to citizenship.

Also especially what he said about prosecuting Wall St. criminals, that was most unexpected since he previously said what they did was 'immoral' rather than 'criminal' something that was very, very frustrating to many people.

[eridani]

57. Agree completely

Given that this is an election year, actual followup could pay big dividends in November.

[tavalon]

53. I didn't watch it, but I have no doubt he did a good, nay magnificent speech

President Obama is a speechifier like no other. It's the follow through he sucks at.

[scardycat]

54. A+++

He made me cry at the end when he said we should all be working together for the good of America. So moving.

[ejbr]

56. Definitely an A for what he said...

let's see what grade he gets for what he tries.

[nevergiveup]

59. Solid A from me

A tad long for my tastes but the ending made it worth it. It was likely the best SOTU I have heard and I go back to Eisenhower.

[AngryAmish]

60. Gutsy.

Shit, no, that was killing Osama. I think he should get a Nobel Prize for it.

[ZenLefty]

61. A

[kentuck]

62. C

being charitable.

[deaniac21]

63. Can't Grade

Dozed off.

[geardaddy]

65. I don't know what grade I'd give it.

I liked a lot of it, but the "We will leave every option open on Iran" and the fracking and drilling stuff scared me.

[Kablooie]

66. I'd give it an O for Bama.

[Napoleon838]

68. Excellent

I think that it was a great speech given! It shows that America is strong and ready to progress. I liked how he said he would not give up. Almost his entire speech I teared up thinking of the wonderful American values coming alive again, and Americans beginning to once again work as a team for the common good. After that speech I can now believe that America will one day be the best in the world again. I give the speech an A++.

[Broderick]

69. B+

On delivery an A.


See, the reason I couldn't give it an A overall is that I was expecting rainbows and a unicorn for everyone. Clearly, he didn't even attempt to broach that subject.

[LanternWaste]

70. An absolute A+; Pres. Obama is wonderful at rhetoric and public speaking.

An absolute A+; Pres. Obama is wonderful at rhetoric and public speaking.

[LiberalLovinLug]

72. Grade the speech? A

It is one of his strongest abilities.

It only highlights what influence he would've, could've, should've had if he had used the bully pulpit like this to go all out for a public option.

[Puglover]

73. What did they do back when I was in H/S?

C+over A.

If he delivers next semester he gets an A. If not C+.

[jwirr]

74. A+ from me and the family.

[TheWraith]

75. Generally, A+.

There were a couple of places where I thought the segues between topics were kind of weak, particularly at the end where he went into the section about working together, but the rest of it was just too damn good.