MOONSHOT — DRINK!

Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.

“All you need to know about the SotU speech: Barack Obama intends to put Joe Biden in charge of curing cancer.”

Earlier: “‘Moonshot’ Medicine Will Let Us Down,” says…The New York Times?

A doubly-interesting source, considering that Thomas Friedman was the origin of Obama’s other favorite outer space State of the Union cliche, “The Sputnik Moment.”

UPDATE: Steve Green concludes his SOTU drunkblogging with a quick one (appropriately enough):

This was Obama’s Al Bundy speech, the lowly shoes salesman desperately trying to get everyone to remember that time he scored four touchdowns in the one game.

Er, that is President Obama wanted us to forget most of the last seven years he’s actually been President, and instead remember that time Candidate Obama gave those big speeches everybody loved.

I’d say even by that modest measure, tonight’s speech was worth of an Al Bundy nap.

But like Al Bundy, Obama will be perpetually on cable TV starting next year, when he’s finally free to be what he’s always dreamed of being, a host on MSNBC.

Exit Quote: “I’m really touched by a soliloquy on cynicism by a guy who doesn’t acknowledge 10 US sailors in Iranian custody.”