In offering a laundry list of programs large and small, Obama’s address was positively Clintonian. But there was a major difference. In his 1996 State of the Union, Clinton chose to bend to the conservative wind that had blown in with the Republican sweep in the previous midterm election. “The era of big government is over,” Clinton declared in one of his most celebrated lines.

Obama, on the other hand, confronts an even more radical and sweeping assault on government, and so he has decided to take it on, forcefully and directly.