“Last night, Obama had the punchy, self-assured air of a President on a roll, freed of old encumbrances (a narrow, nervous Democratic majority in the Senate) and buoyed by both a big jump in his approval ratings and, most important, a growing economy. ‘We have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock market that has doubled, and health-care inflation at its lowest rate in fifty years.’ Here he paused, savored these statistics, then ad-libbed: ‘This is good news, people.’ A wink, a smile, a sideways glance. A man pleased with himself.” — from a SOTU review by The New Yorker‘s Jeff Sheshol.
