State of the Union

Elias Isquith contends that “after eight years of George W. Bush,” America “was in such rotten shape that Obama had little time to do more than stave off the next crisis,” but that by this past Tuesday night, favorable economic developments gave Obama “an opportunity to boast of changing the ‘trajectory’ of the country like few presidents before him and none since Ronald Reagan.”

One of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's most important assets -- a great memory. While telling his listeners yesterday that he didn't waste time watching the laundry list of alleged accomplishments and proposals that seldom get enacted, aka the State of the Union speech, he did catch an excerpt afterward that conveyed a sense of deja vu.

Introducing a segment on Thursday's NBC Today about parents saving for college, co-host Matt Lauer and the show's financial editor Jean Chatzky spent a scant twenty-four seconds on President Obama's recently announced proposal to hike taxes on college savings accounts. Lauer noted: "Talk to me a little bit about what President Obama was referring to when he gave the State of the Union address and…

There wasn’t a lot of fact-checking of Obama’s State of the Union address, but NPR promised they would be eyeing the factual claims. In a ten-minute segment on Wednesday's Morning Edition, they investigated claims they insisted what Obama said was “true,” if a matter of political dispute. But in "fact-checking" Sen. Joni Ernst's GOP response, NPR's Scott Horsley played a slippery game with the…

NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.” Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John…

On Tuesday night, NBC News anchor Brian Williams charged that “a lot people hope” a reality check by Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd was wrong in asserting that most of President Obama's initiatives proposed during his State of the Union address won’t become law. “Some people hope you’re right, a lot of people hope you’re wrong,” interjected Williams following Todd’s brief outlook on whether…

What a sweet story. A local struggling mom writes a letter to the President and she gets not only a lunch meeting with him but later gets featured in his State Of The Union speech. A very touching story about a regular woman...who "coincidentally" was a Democrat operative. However, the Minneapolis Star Tribune very "mysteriouusly" left this very important fact out of the story about her written…

The State of the Union coverage on PBS last night had a slightly bizarre analysis as the speech ended. PBS NewsHour anchor Gwen Ifill jumped in over the applause and said Obama “talked about this being a breakthrough year for America and he seems to be taking on a victory lap.” Later, David Brooks said it was a "very liberal speech" and professed amazement that Obama pretended he hadn't been…

Comedienne and 9/11 truther Rosie O'Donnell mocked Republican Senator Joni Ernst as stupid on Wednesday. The View co-hosts were discussing Ernst's rebuttal to the State of the Union and O'Donnell said of the woman who is also a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard: "Proving that anyone in the world can be a senator."

Appearing on PBS's Charlie Rose Tuesday night following President Obama's State of the Union address, Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt praised it as "one of the best speeches of his presidency" and "remarkably effective," before admitting: "I don't think he's going to get much done....This is not a cycle where you get much done. He may get a little stuff on trade and infrastructure."

Wednesday's CNN Newsroom aired an ESPN-style highlight reel of "some of the moments that got us talking" from President Obama's State of the Union address. The mash-up featured dramatic music and bold graphics, and zeroed in on the Democrat's "burn" of congressional Republicans during his speech. Bizarrely, the program also repeatedly played clips of the President winking and Vice President Biden…

Prior to Tuesday’s State of the Union, President Obama sat down for an annual lunch with various journalists, including the network news anchors and hosts of several Sunday morning talk shows. During his Shepard Smith Reporting program on Tuesday afternoon, the Fox News anchor revealed that during the lunch with President Obama, unlike the anchors of ABC, NBC and CBS, his place card “doesn’t say…

The Huffington Post thinks it has some big scoop about Senator Ted Cruz's response to Barack Obama's State Of The Union address last night. However, after all the hype, the scoop falls laughably flat when you actually see his response.  

In a softball interview with Joe Biden on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer fretted over there being "more tension than normal" during Tuesday's State of the Union address with Republicans in control of Congress and slammed GOP reaction to a line in the speech: "...the President was talking about having arguments that are worthy of the body and the country, and then he said, 'I've run my…