If your opponent gets to show himself to the American people and he’s not as you’ve described, who ends up looking foolish?

From Neo-neocon's analysis of the State of the Union address:

...If you spend a lot of time hammering home the idea that your opponent is stupid, crazy, and/or senile, then every time he acts smart, sane, and competent it makes you look stupid, crazy, and/or like a lying propagandist. If your opponent gets to show himself to the American people and he’s not as you’ve described, who ends up looking foolish?

It’s highly likely that the Democrats’ base loved that the party hung tough against Trump and his populist celebration of America and its people. But the great middle—what did they think? I can’t help but believe that they felt even more estranged from the Democrats than in November of 2016, when that gulf was responsible for the stunning election of Trump the underdog.

A lot—a lot—can happen between now and November 2018. But I don’t see that the Congressional Democrats helped their own cause last night. They were unable to improvise a response that made more sense to most people. Clapping enthusiastically would have seemed like they were approving of Trump, and they didn’t want to do that. But looking grumpy made them seem like they were disapproving not just of Trump, but of America and the success of ordinary Americans.

Read more here.

Althouse on Trump and Kennedy

Ann Althouse on President Trump's State of the Union speech:

1. The NYT has some advance excerpts, including: "This is our New American Moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream."

2. Supreme Court Justices present: Roberts, Breyer, Kagan, Gorsuch.

3. Melania enters, smiling warmly, wearing a white pantsuit and white satin blouse.

4. Trump begins by talking about various heroes and pointing to individuals in the gallery. This is what has in the past always come at the end of the SOTU.

5. "The Legend from Louisiana, Representative Steve Scalise." Trump is warming the place up.

6. Pelosi looks steamed.

7. "If there is a mountain, we climb it. If there is a frontier, we cross it...."

8. "The state of the union is strong, because our people are strong."

9. Lots of talk about God, the flag, "... and why we proudly stand for the National Anthem."

10. "Judges who will interpret the Constitution as written...."

11. $1.5 trillion for infrastructure... which the American people deserve. "Together we can reclaim our great building heritage."

12. "Americans are dreamers too." A sharp line within a discussion of immigration law enforcement.

13. Several immensely affecting stories introducing individuals in the gallery. Trump does an excellent job of dramatizing these stories — parents whose daughters were murdered by M-13, a soldier who saved a fellow soldier, the parents of Otto Warmbier, a North Korean man who suffered terribly before escaping.

14. "It's the people who are making America great again."

15. An excellent speech, extremely well delivered, I think.

Read more here where she also has a good post on the Kennedy speech in front of a car with its hood open in Fall River, Massachusets!

And how about this hero from North Korea (now South Korea)?

Did Mike Pence really put glue on all the Democrats' seats?

At The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro admired Trump's unity politics, which forced the Democrats to be the disunity party as they stayed glued to their seats.

Andrew Klavan liked the way Trump looks to us to solve our problems. That is the American way.

Ben criticized the length of the speech: one hour and twenty minutes.

Michael Knowles noted that the Democrats sat down for low unemployment, low black unemployment, the flag, welders, paid maternity leave, infrastructure, solving the illegal immigration problem.

Jeremy Boreing is the "godking" of the Daily Wire, and I found him to be sharp.
Now they are sticking around for the 17 rebuttal speeches here.