Writers from across the political spectrum on the president\u2019s address to Congress.<\/b>
\nThe political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That\u2019s why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen.
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For an archive of all the Partisan Writing Roundups, check out Our Picks .
Matt Lewis in The Daily Beast:
President Trump outlined an immigration framework in his State of the Union address that has Mr. Lewis cautiously optimistic. Perhaps, he writes, \u201cthe only guy who has the credibility with the base to actually grant amnesty is the same guy who called Mexicans rapists.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Dan McLaughlin in National Review:
Mr. McLaughlin found Mr. Trump\u2019s use of his guest\u2019s inspirational stories during the speech to be a sign of \u201cweakness,\u201d though the stories themselves were powerful reminders of \u201cwhat a perilous world we still live in.\u201d Overall, however, Mr. McLaughlin, a Trump skeptic on the right, was pleased to see the Republican president promote the benefits of tax cuts, solidarity with Iranian protesters and the need for compromise over immigration. Read more \u00bb
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The editors at The Washington Examiner:
The editors at The Washington Examiner heard the president deliver an argument for a strong America. Strength, in their understanding, is less about power and more about resilience. They found the theme \u201ccheering\u201d and \u201cuplifting\u201d and, importantly, \u201ca break from his invocation of strength in authoritarian ways.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Ramesh Ponnuru in Bloomberg:
Presidents tend to use State of the Union addresses to accomplish a few goals, Mr. Ponnuru writes. Apart from garnering good reviews and shoring up popularity, historically, presidents have used the opportunity to lay out policy priorities and \u201clay the groundwork for future legislative proposals.\u201d In this, Mr. Ponnuru explains, Mr. Trump failed, with one very notable exception. On immigration, the president \u201coutlined an extremely ambitious agenda with enough detail to make for a useful debate.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Joan Walsh in The Nation:
Ms. Walsh wants to be fair and give credit where credit\u2019s due: \u201cHe praised \u2018beautiful clean coal,\u2019 which was surreal, but he didn\u2019t praise Nazis or white supremacists or say there are good people \u2018on all sides\u2019 of the racial divides he has widened.\u201d However, she writes, that\u2019s not enough to erase what she calls a \u201ccrisis of democracy that got more dangerous just in the last 36 hours.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Eric Levitz in New York Magazine:
Before Mr. Trump\u2019s comments on immigration, Mr. Levitz admits, he \u201cendorsed a series of vague, but nonetheless bipartisan \u2014 if not outright Democratic \u2014 policy proposals.\u201d But the \u201cgreat unifier\u2019s mask really slipped,\u201d according to Mr. Levitz, when the president made a case against \u201cchain migration.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Jamelle Bouie in Slate:
Mr. Bouie doesn\u2019t see what other commentators saw in the president\u2019s address. \u201cFar from signaling some pivot toward respectability,\u201d he writes, this State of the Union speech serves as a reminder that \u201cthe president sees attacking people of color as a top priority.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Richard Wolffe in The Guardian:
Mr. Wolffe isn\u2019t so sure about the sincerity of the president\u2019s love for America. After all, he points out, the speech comes just \u201cone day after he decided to go easy on Russia for manipulating American democracy.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Chris Cillizza in CNN:
Mr. Cillizza breaks down the president\u2019s speech into six takeaways. One is that Mr. Trump has been governing as the \u201cObama eraser.\u201d Mr. Cillizza takes Mr. Trump\u2019s pledge to keep the prison at Guant\u00e1namo Bay open as \u201ca direct rebuttal to Obama\u2019s long-made and long-failed pledge to close the prison.\u201d Mr. Cillizza gives the president high marks for stagecraft, calling the stories of the families he brought to the State of the Union \u201chaunting and memorable.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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The editorial board at USA Today:
The editors at USA Today warn their readers not to take Mr. Trump\u2019s overtures toward bipartisanship too seriously. They point out that he \u201chas a habit of making bipartisan appeals only to undermine them within days or even hours.\u201d Moreover, they write, \u201chis calls for bipartisan compromise on such areas as infrastructure and immigration are actually major departures in current policy that lack popular support.\u201d Read more \u00bb
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Similarity rank: 55<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 1<\/div>\n

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TW posts: 109<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 0<\/div>\n

TW likes: 1<\/div>\n

TW sentiment: 10<\/div>\n<\/div>\n