WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama opened his State of the Union speech saying he’d keep it short, in what must have seemed music to the ears of some in the chamber antsy to get to Iowa to campaign for president.
At times, Obama looked like he was one of them, eager to challenge biting criticism from Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and other Republicans.
Obama was at turns boastful and biting, confident and sarcastic.
Anyone who says the economy is declining is “peddling fiction,” he argued. Obama characterized skepticism about science and reluctance to adopt technology as absurd. “When the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there,” he said. Claims that U.S. stature in the world is shrinking, he virtually shouted, is “political hot air.”
“The United States of America is the most powerful nation on earth. Period. It’s not even close. It’s not even close!” the president declared.