State of the Union 2015: Full coverage and analysis

There are plenty of things that it’s fair to say most Americans can “surely” agree on. But, memo to President Obama: empathy for the victims of racially-biased policing is not on the list of topics that get us all on the same page. Not even close.

Wait, “surely”?

For three of the last four years, the GOP has given one response to the State of the Union, but gave it twice: once in English, and once translated into Spanish. This year, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) delivered the speech in English, and Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), one of his party’s lone immigration reformers, delivered it in Spanish.

The initial GOP press release billed the Spanish speech as a “translation,” but it was clear to anyone who listened to both versions that these were two different responses to President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union — tailored to two different audiences.

There wasn’t a lot of overlap between the proposals in President Obama’s State of the Union address and those in Iowa Senator Joni Ernst’s Republican response. But here’s one thing they both advocated: trade deals. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the big deals the administration is negotiating, has suddenly become one of the hottest topics in Washington, as it appears to be one of the few topics on which President Barack Obama and Republicans might be able to reach any sort of agreement in this session of Congress.

Of course, what you’re going to read about as a “trade deal” has to do with so much more than trade — like most modern trade agreements, it’s really a broad, sweeping economic agreement that deals in everything from patents to labor rights to geopolitics. Supporters say free trade will boost the economy and curb Chinese dominance. But critics say it’s a massive corporate giveaway that caters to the interests of huge multinationals while killing US jobs.

Tonight’s Republican response to the State of the Union address was notable for almost completely lacking one key thing — criticisms of President Obama.

Indeed, new Iowa senator Joni Ernst began her response by saying that she wasn’t going to “respond to a speech,” but would instead lay out a positive GOP agenda — an agenda that, as it turned out, avoided hot-button issues and controversial rhetoric.

The State of the Union is really two speeches in one. First, it’s a description of where the country is at this moment in time (and if you’re interested in that, here are 33 charts and maps that tell the tale). But second — and more importantly — it lays out the president’s agenda to address the nation’s most serious problems.

In this post, Vox has pulled apart those two threads of the speech: these are the policy proposals Obama laid out — both what he said and what the underlying policy would do.

1) The most striking sentence in President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union came near the start: “Tonight, we turn the page.”

2) It is the seventh year of Obama’s presidency. But it’s the first in which the economy is no longer in crisis. And so it’s the first in which Obama’s State of the Union proposals no longer reeked of crisis.

But it was also the night Michelle Obama wore the same jacket as Alicia Florrick, the first lady of prime time television:

It was a surreal moment for anyone who follows The Good Wife. Florrick, played by Julianna Margulies, has been through it all, is running for State’s Attorney in the latest season, and is considered to be a strong, admirable woman. The meta-ness of it all is that many see Michelle Obama as embodying the same qualities as Florrick.

President Barack Obama called same-sex marriages a civil right during tonight’s State of the Union speech, signaling the completion of what White House officials long characterized as his “evolution” on the issue of marriage equality.

“I’ve seen something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to drive us apart to a story of freedom across our country, a civil right now legal in states that seven in ten Americans call home,” Obama said.

John Boehner’s website appears to have broken the embargo on Joni Ernst’s State of the Union response-speech text, so here it is:

”Good evening.

During the State of the Union, President Obama made a big claim about the war against ISIS. “In Iraq and Syria,” the President said, “American leadership — including our military power — is stopping [ISIS]‘s advance.”

The phrasing here is careful. Obama isn’t claiming that the US has ISIS on the brink of defeat: indeed, the United States has made very little progress towards pushing ISIS out of its core strongholds in Iraq and Syria. Though Obama claims the American goal is “degrading and ultimately defeating [ISIS],” that’s not happening anytime soon.

There’s just one catch: For the most part, Obama can’t plausibly take credit for any of this. The price of US gasoline is dropping right now because the price of crude oil is dropping all around the world. And the price of crude oil is dropping for reasons that have little to do with the president.

The recent global collapse in oil prices boils down to two basic factors: oil production had been surging lately in places like the US, Canada, and Russia, and global demand for oil is now falling.

Who gets invited to watch the State of the Union address? Ridiculously high achievers, people who write letters to the White House, individuals whose stories illustrate points the president plans to make, and especially people who check all of the above boxes.

According to a release by the White House earlier this week, the special guests sitting with Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden and Valerie Jarrett tonight will include a 36-year-old mom whose family has struggled financially, a community college student, an astronaut, an LAPD officer, and more. You’ll probably hear about them in tonight’s speech.

Tonight, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa will deliver the Republican Party’s response to the State of the Union address. Here’s some background on who Ernst is, and what she’ll say.

Joni Ernst of Iowa was sworn in as a US senator earlier this month. Her political career stretches back to 2004, when she was elected as Montgomery County auditor. She won a state senate seat in 2011 and launched her bid for Iowa’s open US Senate seat in 2013.

There’s pretty much no chance that President Obama’s State of the Union address will make everyone happy.

But this tool might.

From Obama chuckling at his own joke to his very frequent “to be sures,” there are certain things you just know will come up in the State of the Union address. It is in that spirit we bring you our official State of the Union bingo card.

State of the Union bingo works just like normal bingo: when the president utters a phrase on the card or a certain action happens (John Boehner eye rolls, anyone?), you cross the square off your card. Five in a row, and you’ve scored a bingo! Or, in tonight’s terminology, the state of your bingo card is strong.

Typically the White House releases a few excerpts in advance of the State of the Union, and 2015 is no exception to that rule. Here’s what they’ve told us to expect: