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What they said

Wall Street Journal 1/25/11: “President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to challenge lawmakers in both parties to rise above partisan divisions to tackle problems that will allow the U.S. to compete in the global economy.”

New York Times, 1/25/11: “President Obama called Tuesday night for Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside their partisan differences and come together around a common goal of out-competing other nations in a rapidly shifting global economy.”

Marketwatch, 1/25/11: “…President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to set aside partisan differences and bolster the economic recovery and America’s competitiveness in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. In an address before a joint session of Congress, Obama laid out a blueprint for job creation and ‘investments’ in the United States, saying the U.S. must “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.”

Forbes blog, 1/25/11: “In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Obama appealed to Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan differences and work together to restore American competitiveness.”

NY Times editorial, 1/26/11: “Mr. Obama’s speech offered a welcome contrast to all of the posturing that passes for business in the new Republican-controlled House. On Tuesday, House Republicans pushed through a resolution calling for reducing spending on domestic programs to 2008 levels.  That will not do much, if anything, to bring down the long-term deficit. In a fragile economy, especially, cutting back spending on transportation, education, scientific research, food safety and childhood nutrition, will do huge damage. Mr. Obama did not wade into every fight and ignored some. But he did take on some tough ones. He said it is time, for example, to stop deporting young people who were brought to America by undocumented immigrants and are now successful students. Americans need to hear a lot more like that from Mr. Obama in weeks to come.”

Experts, commentators and pundits

E.J. Dionne, WashingtonPost.com, 1/25/11: “It was a smart speech aimed at scrambling the political debate, reassuring Americans that we can overcome challenges to our economic power, and redefining the political center…Obama has clearly decided to take that challenge on, embracing the idea of America as an exceptional nation that always, well, wins the future.”

David Gergen tweeted 1/25/11: Pres. Obama’s State of the Union Speech “may not be what people want to hear but it is what we all need to hear.”

ABC’s Christiane Amanpour said: President Obama’s speech was “Reagan-esque” in its optimism and “full of Kennedy-esque encouragement to break a new frontier.” “Well, full of sunny optimism, very Reagan-esque, on and on about American exceptionalism in many, many instances, and full of Kennedy-esque encouragement to break a new frontier. That "Sputnik" moment was remarkable – of course, harking back to 1957 when the Soviet Union put the first unmanned satellite in space and started the space race and really launched a whole new era of technological, scientific, and all sorts of progress – and the president calling for more of that here.” ABC News, 1/25/11

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “And he brought both parties to their feet, Diane, at least 45 times, from our count. 45 instances of bipartisan applause. I think that sets a record for modern States of the Union.” ABC News, 1/25/11

NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell: President Obama “was trying to invoke the optimism, the can-do spirit that brings to mind Ronald Reagan in these Settings.” NBC News, 1/25/11

Fox News’ Juan Williams: “I liked the speech. The reason was I thought it spoke to our American moment. I thought this is not a moment for fake oratory that seeks to soar at this moment, because America needs to dig in and get some things done.” Fox News, 1/25/11