The XX Factor: What women really think.

Don't You Know It's Getting Better

Emily Y, with a couple of days to let Obama's first annual address to Congress sink in, I totally agree with you re: its uncomfortable expansiveness. He exuded a wonderful self-possession, an almost amazing glow and confidence—amazing given the uneven success of his administration's first moves and the difficult decisions he faces. OK, GOP responder Bobby Jindal's delivery was worse than Obama's—oh, God, so much worse. Indeed, his bizarrely lulling, cheesy mantra "Americans can do anything!" made Jindal sound like a child therapist.

But wasn't Obama's message kind of the same thing? Yes, he made rhetorical nods to sacrifice, but to sacrifices (like relying more on alternative energy sources) that aren't much of a sacrifice at all for the progressive-minded. Both Obama's and Jindal's expansive optimism that Americans Can Do Anything!, even cure cancer while crawling out of a deep recession, reminded me of the every-day-just-goes-up-and-up mood of ... the subprime mortgage bubble.