There were so many thoughts and emotions flooding my feeble brain during the president's address.
He spoke to us like adults, and at rolling pace that commanded attention -- a striking contrast to Bush's deliberately condescending and halting delivery that assumed a remedial viewer comprehension level. What was really remarkable, though, was the president's almost conversational aspect at times. The back and forth -- the spontaneous reactions to various congressional responses. But then, an effortless modulation, allowing him to grow beyond the size of the room and to become a world leader with a commanding presence I honestly haven't seen in a joint session since Reagan (agree or disagree, the guy could hold an audience).
Substantively, I could've done without charter schools, biofuels and clean coal. But that's nitpicking considering the gigantic scope of everything else presented. The core being:
We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again. That is why, even as it cuts back on the programs we don't need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education.
As I watched the president deliver that last part, I said out loud in my Bush voice, "But what about the evildoers and the human-animal hybrids? Eh-eh." Bush could, all at once, be small and ridiculously lofty in the same speech. He could set fantastical goals like "bringing God's gift of freedom to everyone in the world" while, several paragraphs later, vowing to ban a menacing race of pig-men.
But this president has outlined an agenda that's both politically ambitious and extraordinarily important to our actual lives. College educations, making sure we can get sick without going broke, and renewing American industry while tackling the climate crisis. And he's selling this agenda based upon what can be achieved, rather than what you and I should fear. Goddamn. The dark ride really is over.