So I was poking around the blogs following the State of the Union – which, save for a crowd-pleasing if possibly misguided swipe at the Roberts Court over Citizens United and the promise to have all combat troops out of Iraq by August, mostly amounted to “I would like to reiterate that I wish to do the things I am trying to do” – and then the following got me so depressed I’m not sure there’s any point in really thinking about the SOTU.

Chris Matthews:

I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.

[Update: Chris Matthews explains. Fair enough, though he remains a cautionary tale about talking 20 hours a day. Rachel Maddow’s expression during this exchange is priceless.]

David Brooks:

I was struck by how moderate the speech was. If you took away all the fighting in the last year, and started with this, I think the atmosphere in Washington would probably be different.

Sally Quinn:

Imagine Washington as the planet Pandora in the movie “Avatar.” Think of the permanent Washington establishment as the natives, the Na’vi. If you’ve seen the movie, you know that the Earth people invade Pandora and try to take over, hoping to throw out the natives and take over their lush virgin forests, valuable minerals and sacred lands.

Maureen Dowd:

Obama’s Oneness has been one-upped. Why settle for a faux populist when we can have a real one? Why settle for gloomy populism when we can have sunny populism? Why settle for Ivy League cool when we can have Cosmo hot [Scott Brown]?

I do not know where these crazy people come from or understand their motivations. It’s not that I disagree with them; I’d have to understand them first. It’s like disagreeing with a cloud or the color orange. Unless the iPad has an app that will fire David Brooks, I don’t see how it’s going to save journalism.

PS: Because today’s word is bipartisanship, I’d like to call for an immediate chill-down about Alito mouthing some shit: 1) I’m human, and dude got called out by the President in front of his face. 2) If the protocol is meant to give the impression that SCOTUS isn’t politicized or political, to hell with the protocol.