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But the President’s failure to address this decoupling of American corporate profits from American jobs, and explain specifically what he’ll do to get jobs back, not only risks making his grand plans for reviving the nation’s “competitiveness” seem somewhat beside the point but also cedes to Republicans the dominant narrative.

The address he gave last night could have been given (indeed, was given) by Democrats in the 1980s when Japan seemed to threaten America’s preeminence. Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign manifesto, “Putting People First,” laid out the case. Only now the competitive threat comes from China.

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Broun previously warned that the president was showing "signs of being Marxist," as well as doing "exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany," so really no one should be surprised that this guy was not impressed by the president's vision of "winning the future."

And that's why he wrote, as the speech wrapped up, "Mr. President, you don't believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism."

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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Tonight I want to begin by congratulating the men and women of the 112th Congress, as well as your new speaker, John Boehner. And as we mark this occasion, we're also mindful of the empty chair in this chamber, and we pray for the health of our colleague -- and our friend -- Gabby Giffords.

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Apple's seminal "Think different" campaign -- which some say restored the company's reputation -- comes to mind, for some reason. But the association is apt according to the pundits' reaction to the speech. First of all, the American people really liked the speech. According to a CBS News poll the approval rating on Obama's second State of the Union clocked in at a cool 91%. (It's worth pointing out that only 500 people made up the group polled.) The reactions from analysts, journalists, and talking heads varied somewhat, however. Here's a sampling of the more insightful ones:

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow calls Obama's speech a "prayer to the free market" that sounded like "more of a CEO-style pep talk than a football rally style pep talk." Watch:

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10:57 Ok I gave in. Hah, it is so much more insane here, where she's just sort of staring off to the left of the screen. Everyone: The CNN camera is different from the terrorist Internet Skype camera -- she's just refusing to look at the liberals watching CNN. This address was for the patriots! Anyway, I missed the details of everything she said, more or less, but the pictures were neat. What a fun night! Stay tuned for more coverage from all of us here in the WAR ROOM, tonight and tomorrow.

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Marc Melzer and Howard Deutsh's game on drinkinggame.us:
This is the most basic of the drinking games we found, and therefore the most plausible. Think of it as your safe bet (in terms of the rules themselves applying to the speech, not in terms of health. If you actually play by all of these rules, you will die). There are simple shot commands for the Obama and/or 2011 general climate safe buzzwords ("hope," "change," "progress," "civility"), shots for mentioning key Arab nations, and key domestic issues ("education," "jobs").

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The move is almost identical to the freeze Obama called for in his address to the nation last year at this time -- his current proposal would cover five years, not three years -- and ultimately it may have little effect. Congress decides the budget on its own terms, and Obama has even less sway than he did in his first two years on the job now that Republicans have taken control of the House.

In a political sense, Obama is fighting Republicans for the upper hand in showing fiscal restraint in a time of staggering debt. Public angst over spending was a defining force in the 2010 midterm elections, and it is expected to remain so as Obama's re-election drive begins.

Overall, Obama is trying to convince the American people and a divided Congress that he has a vision for speeding up job creation, promoting spending on the core of his agenda but promising to rein in debt. His speech will reflect reality: The economy trumps all.

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He'll likely have a line or two about the welfare of the troops, how we must support them when they come home and rebuild the morale shattered by broken withdrawal deadline after broken withdrawal deadline (he probably won't use those words, exactly).

However, he won't tell the whole story about how the troops are faring.

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"[E]ven tough debates can be conducted in a civil tone, and our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger. To confront the great issues before us, we must act in a spirit of goodwill and respect for one another -- and I will do my part. ... Tonight I will set out ... an agenda for a nation that competes with confidence; an agenda that will raise standards of living and generate new jobs. ... Tonight I announce an American Competitiveness Initiative, to encourage innovation ... "

Except that's not from Obama's speech tonight. That's what George W. Bush said in 2006.

But if the previews are any indication, "innovation" will indeed be a major theme of Obama's address. In choosing that theme, Obama is following in the path of presidents going back to Jimmy Carter, who spoke of harnessing the "American genius for innovation" in 1981.

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Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, however, was not expected to join them.

Kelly was invited to attend but will remain in Houston, where he is based and where Giffords is now receiving medical care, her office said Monday. She was transferred to a facility there last Friday to begin rehabilitation after being hospitalized in Tucson since the Jan. 8 shootings.

"He wants to stay in Houston to be near his wife," said Mark Kimble, Giffords' spokesman in Tucson.

Intern Daniel Hernandez was hailed as a hero after the shooting. The 20-year-old University of Arizona student rushed to her side and applied pressure to her wounds until medical personnel arrived.

When he spoke Jan. 12 at a national televised memorial service in Tucson, Hernandez pointedly shunned the hero label. But Obama, who followed him to the microphone, politely disagreed and assured Hernandez that he was, in fact, a hero.

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Word has it that the president will be emphasizing "improving American competitiveness" in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. As I've noted, the term is meaningless, but it's politically useful. CEOs and many conservatives think it means improving the profitability of American companies. Liberals and labor unions think it means increasing export jobs.

Neither touches at the heart of the matter. Hopefully, the president will. Over the long term, the only way to improve the living standards of most Americans is to invest in our people, especially their educations, skills and the communications and transportation systems linking them together and with the rest of the world (infrastructure).

In the global economy, the only "asset" that's unique to any nation -- and that determines its living standard -- is the people who comprise it. Almost everything else moves across global boundaries at the speed of an electronic impulse. (Money is available to any major business from anywhere around the world. Any entrepreneur can rent or purchase additional office or factory capacity, and the most up-to-date machinery, instantly from anywhere. Commodities, supplies and components can be summoned almost as quickly from anywhere.)

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Giving the response to the State of the Union seems like a big honor, and "rising stars" are often chosen to do it, but it's actually not a very good gig: There's no real upside, and lots of potential pitfalls. The response is always either forgotten, or remembered for the wrong reasons. Plus Christie only likes yelling at people on camera when they're in the same room as him -- shouting "you're the worst thing in the entire world ever, show me some respect" or whatever at an absent president would not be a good look.

Paul Ryan will deliver the Republican response instead, and he'll probably have charts and stuff. Then Michele Bachmann will deliver her own response, on the Internet, which will obviously be the only thing pundits actually pay attention to.

Christie was also invited to the Conservative Political Action Conference, and he turned that down, too. (That invite was confirmed by CPAC organizers.)

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In the State of the Union speech Tuesday night, she will be looking for Obama to stand firm against Republicans who want to take the law apart. Health insurance for her daughter, who has lifetime medical problems, could hang in the balance.

Many other Americans feel a personal stake in what Obama will say Tuesday and do later -- and what Republicans do in response. The hunger for jobs and economic growth stood out in interviews with more than 1,000 people, part of an Associated Press-GfK poll asking Americans what one thing they most want the government to accomplish this year.

It is apparent, too, that health care is still very much on people's minds, that spending has reached frightening proportions for many and that a notable share of Americans wants nothing more than to see partisan bickering end.

In upstate New York, Donald Dixon puts his faith in Republicans to restrain Democratic spending and bring down a debt that he believes makes every economic problem worse -- and robs his grandsons, each with a master's degree, of good jobs.

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"I believe [that decision] will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections."

Let's leave aside for a moment the obvious rejoinder, namely that neither the Journal's editorialists nor any of his other critics can possibly know whether Obama actually "believes" what he said or not. Instead, let's revisit the issue at hand, which is whether foreign interests will now be able to influence American elections.

The Politifact Web site, in a post that curiously described Obama's remark as "barely true," went on to quote legal experts who provided clear support for his concerns. Robert Kelner, chairman of the election and political law practice group at Covington and Burling, said: "Some people think that Kennedy's opinion in Citizens United logically leads there. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. We don't know for sure." Brett Kappel, who specializes in political law at Arent Fox, said the majority opinion "certainly could be read as declaring this provision unconstitutional, so I'd have to say the president's interpretation is correct -- but we won't really know for sure until a court rules on the issue."

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Although the scope of the latest problem created by the court may be a matter of speculation, there is no doubt that unbridled corporate contributions will open the way for foreign interests and individuals to intervene in U.S. politics -- so long as their money is laundered through a company incorporated in this country.

So warned Justice John Paul Stevens in his partial dissent from the majority decision, saying that the decision by the court’s Republican majority "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans" -- and the other three justices, appointed by Democrats, noted their agreement.

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After saying that reform is "on life support, unfortunately," Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., told reporters Thursday that Obama hadn't done enough with his speech to change that. "He should have been more clear, and I am hoping that in the next week or two he will because that is what it is going to take if it is at all possible to get it done. Mailing in general suggestions, sending them over the transom, is not necessarily going to work.”

Landrieu also criticized the president for having called out the Senate for being slow to pass legislation already approved by the House, saying it was "a little strange, a little odd." It's hard not to hear her talking about herself when she went on to say, "Moderate Senate Democrats, who give the Senate the 60 votes, come from states that have to appreciate a broad range of ideas." She's got a tough political situation in Louisiana, and has been slow to join her Democratic colleagues in supporting the president's agenda for just that reason.

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