Continued reaction from final State of the Union

Though Obama didn’t mention by name any of those running for president, there were moments throughout his address when one had no doubt that he was referring to some of the nonsense that has been passing for policy out along the campaign trail. He traveled to Omaha, Neb.

As President Barack Obama begins his eighth and final year in office, the differences in how he and leading Republicans view the health care reform law continue to be sharp. NPR’s Scott Horsley reports. He declared the United States “the most powerful nation on Earth”. He pointed to sharp disagreements over the best way to battle ISIS and the government’s role in regulating the economy.

“I’m going to try to make it a little shorter”, he said. Millennials were barely old enough for college when Obama first became president, and his second term was the first election that many of us could legally vote in. Personal debt held by Americans has increased by about $1 trillion.

He also took a thinly-vieled shot at Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. Let me just say this: This is not matter of political correctness. “Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, what we stand for, and the incredible things we can do together?”

Mr Trump, who has also called for a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico to prevent entry to illegal immigrants, has been condemned across the world for his attitude towards Muslims and immigrants. She cautioned voters against the tendency to confuse noise with results.

Rhetoric by Republicans who have insisted on calling ISIL “Islamic” in nature is counterproductive in the fight against ISIL, Mr Obama said, and the USA should not “push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world’s largest religions. We just need to call them what they are – killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed”, Obama said.

There were some strong but fleeting lines about climate change, but the President declined to take a real victory lap on the Paris agreement from December, which he and his White House staff earned. I’m certain that he wants to talk about his legacy. That’s how you win.

The Republicans, not surprisingly, were not impressed.

Louisiana’s new Democratic governor started that process this week.

And if there was any remaining doubt he was talking about Donald Trump, Obama got even more specific.

“You hear a bunch of folks right across the river and I don’t know if the TV has drifted over here, but they’re kind of depressing”, he said. “I think people are very anxious”. We’ve had it with illegal immigration.

It’s important to not just talk about today, it’s important to talk about what the future looks like.