THE STATE OF THE UNION: THE PRESIDENT STRUCK THE RIGHT TONE

I thought the president’s State of the Union address was well done. It was less a list of specific proposals than the SOTU often is (although there were some), and more an articulation of what is going well in America, along with the president’s broad vision for the way ahead. It was clear he was enjoying laying out this vision and talking about the very significant progress that is being made on some critical issues. And while I have some particular concerns that I will describe below, I think the president is right to use the bully pulpit to remind Americans about how far we’ve come since 2008, and that he contextualized foreign and defense policy issues properly within this important theme.