Despite the lecture about how we need a different and more elevated politics at the end (which was itself drearily familiar), the speech was another exercise in Obama’s stubbornly dogged and fixed politics. He didn’t bend after the rebuke of 2010 and he’s not going to give way after the rebuke of 2014. His only concession to the new political reality in Washington was veto threats. Otherwise, it was another version of the same old mix of tax increases, redistribution proposals, and new government programs. We’ve heard so much the last couple of months about how Republicans need to “govern.” Well, this wasn’t a “governing” agenda from the president, but a statement of defiance, that will be augmented by (allegedly) legacy-boosting unilateral actions, on Gitmo, Iran, climate change, and any number of other things.