Overall I thought the President's speech last night was fairly schizophrenic. The first 20-minutes were vintage Obama – A+ for delivery, A- for substance, A+++++ for making his voters believe in him. The attacks on the banks, the defense of the stimulus, the recitation of tax cuts made and yet to come: All of these things are why he made his way from the Illinois state senate to the Oval Office in such a short time. Nancy Pelosi looked like she had a spring installed in her seat, and the energy in the chamber practically jumped through the TV screen.

But as he wound his way into the last 50 minutes the speech fell flat. Badly. He found himself bogged down in a laundry list of relatively minor programs and foreign policy declaration that seemed to drag on and on endlessly. The applause lines were fewer, and less enthusiastic. His folksy jokes and asides to Congress fell flat. I kept waiting for him to build to some climax along the line of Ted Kennedy's 1980 DNC speech, but it never came. Overall it's an A for the first half, a C+ for the second half, for a B+ overall.

One aside is worth noting. CNN as always had its focus group with their “magic dials,” where the Democrats, Independents, and Republicans could register their feelings toward the President. CNN showed a clip where the President began talking about health care reform. He was going along at about what looked like 50% with R's and I's, and 90% among D's. The second the words “health care” came out of his mouth, the numbers among R's and I's dipped about 10 points. This suggests that he hasn't made much progress in turning around the public's views of health care reform.

Moreover, the speech went on: “Now, let's clear a few things up. (Laughter.) I didn't choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt. And by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics.”

During this segment, the dials for Independents and Republicans plummeted. Republicans were around 20%, while Independents were actually around 0%.

I think there's something larger going on here. Sometimes Obama doesn't act like he understands the gravity of the office he holds. These types of comments are great for a candidate, and they show his humanity. They're perfect for a state dinner or something like that.

But a State of the Union address in the midst of 10% unemployment isn't a time to be folksy, especially with Independent voters who are looking less for policy prescriptions than for a general feeling of leadership. This isn't the first time the President has “gone casual” like this in speeches, but it is the first actual evidence I've seen that this costs him among voters whose support he badly needs.

--------------------------------------------
Follow the RCP Blog on Twitter.
Become a fan of RCP on Facebook.
--------------------------------------------