DANIEL HENNINGER says that when you look past the presentation, Obama’s speeches are downers. Ann Althouse wonders if anyone is listening that closely.

Nick Gillespie, meanwhile, has started paying attention to Obama’s pronouncements and isn’t that happy: “I smell…intervention in the economy.” And still more Obama-parsing here: “I think that’s the kind of uniter that Obama wants to be. He wants to be an outflanker, not a synthesizer or a moderate in the typical senses of those terms.” I guess he’ll be getting a lot more close attention now that the shield of Hillary’s supposed inevitability has disintegrated.