President Obama’s SOTU was very impressive in many ways. He set the table for this year’s elections, appealed to people’s better angels, and spoke of some of the longer term challenges that we face. Is there anyone better at puncturing the ideological balloons of the extreme right? The President isn’t a radical, but he isn’t a centrist Democrat pure and simple either, as some suggest. He possesses a deep democratic sensibility and soberness that were once again evident last night.