Obama Kicks Off the Next Presidential Campaign

First Read: “Maybe the best way to view President Obama’s confident and ambitious State of the Union address last night was him handing the political baton back to his party — and likely Hillary Clinton — essentially telling them: ‘Here are the issues worth fighting for in the coming years.’ Paid sick/maternity leave. Free tuition for qualified community college students. More investment in America’s infrastructure. Tax cuts for the middle class. And, of course, higher taxes for the wealthy to pay for all of these things.”

“Unlike in past State of the Union addresses and other speeches, Obama didn’t call on congressional Republicans to meet him halfway on certain issues. He didn’t latch on to certain GOP proposals. And he certainly didn’t acknowledge his party’s big defeat in last November’s midterm election. Instead, he focused on the future — the future campaigns and the future legislative fights; it felt like the leader of a party laying out a platform. The chief reason why: As we’ve seen over the past four years, there isn’t much hope in divided government being able to accomplish big things, let alone the little ones. But it was still jarring, because his State of the Union sounded more like one a president gives in a campaign year, not one right after an election (especially an election your party just lost).”