So I’m watching Steve Kornacki (a former editor of mine at Salon who has done well lately) at MSNBC doing a high-speed comparison of Obama’s current status with that of recent two-term presidents (Reagan, Clinton and Bush). Meanwhile the six SCOTUS justices attending the speech are filing in, followed by the featured entrance of the First Lady, and then the Cabinet (with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx left behind as the Designated Survivor in case the Capitol gets blown up).

Chris Matthews’ big preview line: “Obama will be a Democrat tonight.”

Seems Steve King’s calling the DREAMer in the First Lady’s box “deportable.” Nice.

So in keeping with the president’s “no drama” approach to this speech, his prepared remarks have been posted for all the world to see.

We’ll move to a new post as Obama makes his way down the aisle.

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Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.