The president, making a promise he cannot keep:

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.

Cared for and cherished? Maybe. Always safe from harm? Impossible. It would also be nice if the kids on the streets of Chicago were part of the equation, but that's not happening, either.

You can argue that, well, it's just an aspiration and not an actual, achievable goal. But the real problem with it is that it's crap. You cannot keep anyone always safe from harm, although in your ministrations to do so you can harm them a hell of a lot, by taking away their ability to make decisions.

And then there was this:

A decade of war is now ending.

Uh, I don't think so. We may be about to stop fighting in Afghanistan, but there's little reason to expect that we won't have to defend our interests in the next four years. I would certainly support taking a hard look at where our interests precisely lie (Mali might not be one of those places, to use a recent example), but wars don't end just because you say they do in a speech.

Cross-posted and comments welcome at Mr. Dilettante's Neighborhood.