You say that, but fact is, one could make the argument that had the President's speech last night been delivered by a Republican, the Left would be calling today for a rescue of the downtrodden and call to arms against their billionaire oppresors.
That's because in the opinion of many, this President is now clearly a centrist, pro-business oriented fiscal conservative when compared to his stance just a couple of years ago when they were against proprietary trading on the desks of firms like Goldman Sachs, etc.
There is truth to this.
People at Huffington were pissy, one in particular called it "the most pro-business SOTU ever given by a Democratic President." Knee-jerk, overblown liberal sentiment, but they are onto something.
Certainly the political ramifications and reality of the mid-terms have forced Obama to fight in a triangulation strategy like Clinton, but that speech last night was inspired by/lifted from another President: Reagan.
Read that speech. You think Obama previously would ever use that salmon anecdote, much less two years ago? No, but that was the sort of fodder Reagan regularly deployed.
Before his election, some analysts considered Obama a possible transformative President who could alter the American political game like Reagan's Presidency did, two charismatic orators beloved (at times) by the base and absolutely despised by the ideological opposition.
Jury is still out, but apparently Obama read a Reagan biography over the holidays and I think the influence was obvious at the SOTU. Of course his best "Reagan-esque" speech was at Tucson, which personally demolished the SOTU. It didn't just satisfy what people wanted, it changed the story and the media pretty much quit the "blame game" narrative regarding the assassination attempt shortly afterwards.
Hell Appleonya liked it. I think that says enough.
