IT'S GOOD TO TOUCH THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME

So I watched the State of the Union, and damn, I don't know how the guy does it year in and year out -- rattles off lists of potentially beneficial, decent programs (expanded refinancing aid! universal early childhood education! putting people to work fixing 70,000 bridges!) knowing there isn't a snowball's chance in hell than any will ever be considered seriously by Congress. I don't know how he manages to maintain his enthusiasm and sense of mission. It's what it must be like listening to the life-without-parole guy in prison describe in painstaking detail the elaborate beach house he's going to build when he gets out, even though he never will get out. You don't know whether it's self-delusion or a sign of the indomitable nature of the human spirit. And then at the end was the strongest part of the speech -- on guns, an issue on which he's likely to be utterly stonewalled. (No, I don't agree with the conventional wisdom that he'll lose on the assault weapons ban but get a background check bill passed.) So he did fine, but does it matter? He still has to share the job of governing with people who don't believe in governing or sharing.