For what it’s worth, I didn’t think the president helped himself last night. He reminded me of the smart kid who feels he doesn’t need to prepare. The speech was very inconsistent in tone, from don’t-frighten-the-horses utilitarianism to the grandiosity he finds so hard to resist (the this-is-the-moment stuff*) to the petulant imputations of bad faith to anyone who disagrees with him (which is at least as unbecoming as what that no-name Congressman did).

I don’t think he was served by the setting and the unearned ovations that come with it: There’s a reason why joint sessions have mostly been reserved for foreign policy. The ritual suits affairs of state. But health care is an affair of you and your body — that’s why his numbers tanked over August, as people realized it wasn’t just about helping “the uninsured” but about potentially dramatic changes to their own health care. The parliamentary frippery subliminally underlines what increasing numbers of voters don’t like about it — that your hip replacement is now in the care of Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank.

So I don’t think it’ll help. On the other hand, how much help does he need? If I were Obama, I’d be planning on ramming something — anything — through and relying on my charisma, the media, and GOP clubfootedness to see me over the rough patch. Not saying that’ll work, but, given the extraordinary complacency of the speech, evidently the president and his courtiers still feel they’ve got it all over anybody else.

(*If memory serves, “This Is The Moment” is the big bombastic ballad from the Jekyll & Hyde musical. Which, doctor-wise, feels vaguely relevant.)

[UPDATE: Memory does, indeed, serve. Here it is performed by David Hasselhoff. I look forward to Obama singing it ast his next State of the Union.]