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Yeah, I don’t have much at present. I’m sure you’re coping.

I didn’t watch the State of the Union address, as per usual (or the rebuttals or, gods help us, the probably a permanent fixture from now on “prebuttals”), and having looked at various summaries and commentaries I struggle to find anything to even fix on.

Which is why I couldn’t resist highlighting this one reaction from The Atlantic Cities:

The Urban Message Missing From the State of the Union
The issues facing the nation’s cities were largely ignored in the president’s speech

I mean, the general impression I get of Obama’s 2012 address was that it was a piled-up heap of just about everything but the kitchen sink. But, y’know, hey. We’ve still got to have at least one (and probably more than one) person coming along the next morning to lament that “well, the president didn’t even mention xyz issue once!” (Though “largely ignored” suggests to me that there wasn’t even a complete absence, here, and this guy’s still complaining.)

Apparently we still expect the president to be not only all things to all people but to be all those things at all times. Right-o, that’s realistic, then. Carry on everyone.

It’s not often that I find myself even partially in agreement with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but Nino’s dismissal of the State of the Union speech as an empty, pointless ritual is pretty much my own opinion as well. Of course, we disagree about Scalia’s rather pathetic assertion that things were so much better in Reagan’s day, and about my assertion that Scalia is still an asshole even when he’s partially correct.

I also have to confess, though, that the combination of “the chief executive’s prime-time telemarketing event” and the reactions to it communicate one or two significant things about the state of this union. Things, alas, pretty thoroughly discouraging.

The disappointment expressed by a wide spectrum of observers is particularly interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m disappointed in the Obama presidency in various ways but, paradox though it may be, not really more disappointed than I expected to be. What did everyone else expect?

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