Prior to last night, we could have all agreed that President Obama had one undeniable and great skill; the man could deliver a speech. His national political career, after all, had been launched with a speech, at the Democrat Party Convention in 2004. More than that though, his entire political history–and trajectory–can be mapped by speeches. When his primary campaign for the Presidency was sputtering, a rousing speech at the Iowa Democrat’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner created the momentum he needed to win that state’s pivotal caucus. When inflammatory video of his long-time pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, surfaced and threatened to derail his campaign, a well-received speech on race allowed him to turn away the controversy.  A Will.I.Am video riff of one of Obama’s speeches was such a potent piece of political propaganda that even I developed a bit of a man-crush on the One.

Obama seemed to have a gift for perfectly capturing the tone and mood of the public. It may seem a tired cliche now, but his speeches did much to inspire the hope people attached to his candidacy. Even rather vague or pedestrian phrases seemed to soar in his gifted hands. I had accepted it as a given that, if his political fortunes were ever down, Obama would be able to reverse his troubles by pulling just the right speech from his rhetorical bag of tricks.

No more.

Obama’s State of the Union address last night was not just overly long and dull, it was totally tone-deaf politically. Coming on the heels of a political upset in Massachusetts, with deteriorating poll numbers and anxious members of his own party, Obama badly needed a home-run to change the political dynamics. He struck out.

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Earlier today, two independent reporters in Springfield, Massachusetts attended a Martha Coakley for Senate event. Prior to the candidates arrival, several union members surrounded the two reporters. From one of the reporters, Erich Heyssel:

The mood when we arrived was tense. They seemed to be an unhappy group of people. Dour, even. There were about 100 people outside the Teamster’s Local 404 building and, another 100 or so inside. We started trying to film the gathering and asked some basic questions. We were told we had to leave.

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