For his incumbent campaign, President Obama has decided to run against Congress, and I think it may be the best political decision he’s made. After years of filibusters and a perpetual lack of cooperation, he has clearly had it with congressional nonsense, and not a moment too soon-dissatisfaction with the legislative branch is at an all-time high. For voters, the president’s recent State of the Union address was underscored with a sense of lighting the proverbial fire: he repeatedly beseeched lawmakers to “Put it in a bill, and get it on my desk.”

While a lot of the speech was predictably rah-rah, it was nice to hear some positive rhetoric about my U.S. of A. Naturally, the president began with a recap of the most campaign-y successes of his first term: killing Osama and ending the war in Iraq. He spent about two minutes toasting this wartime success before cutting into the meat, which was American manufacturing and how to make it happen.

He reminded voters of the 4 million jobs the country lost in the six months before he took office, and of the million jobs his administration rescued along with the American auto industry. In a call to arms for business owners, the president asked: “What can you do to bring jobs back home?” and promised federal help for those willing to answer.

This led to the tax code, and the many ways in which it needs revision. In a huge understatement, the president proposed ending tax breaks to companies who outsource jobs, especially when they outsource those jobs to avoid paying taxes. Despite the glaring simplicity of this logic, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor looked like he was trying to decipher hieroglyphics the entire time.

Another focus of the speech was education, especially at the post-secondary level. The president proposed extending the tuition tax credit for middle-class families, preventing student loan rates from doubling over the summer and doubling available work-study jobs for students. He put the responsibility on states to keep higher-education costs down or risk cuts in federal funding.

Additionally, Obama tackled issues of immigration reform (seriously-give them a chance), equal pay for equal work (Ladies!), and innovation and research investments (so we can keep inventing useless stuff like the Internet).

The president made no bones about blaming banks for their monumental fudge, proposing “living wills” for how they plan to handle disasters, as well as stronger regulation to prevent the frequent instances of financial fraud.

When he began discussing American energy, and how we should probably stop subsidizing oil companies, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s chin disappeared completely into his gullet. It hid there until after the bit about campaign finance reform. President Obama went on to refuse to pass more faithfully useless Bush tax cuts, because giving millionaires tax breaks is fundamentally ridiculous. He then awesomely promised to do all of these with or without this Congress. Boom.

Then it got kind of weird… The president basically swore a blood-oath to prevent a nuclear Iran. Loosely quoted, he said that if Iran continues to shirk their responsibilities, let there be no doubt that he would take no option off the table and will not back down on this issue. He then ambiguously referenced the “enduring power of our moral example” (I know, I’m cynical-but what is that?) before lightening things up with “our ironclad commitment to Israel.”

Anyway. Perhaps you, like House Speaker John Boehner, find yourself rolling your eyes. You’ve still got to admit, comparatively, it sounds like our current president has the next election staked.

Mia Tapella is a senior political science major.

She can be reached at 581-7942 or DENopinions@gmail.com.