A newish president of the United States takes the rostrum of the House of Representatives to give his second State of the Union address. Fair or not, many Americans harbor doubts about the validity of his election, and most seriously, his mettle for the job. His country is at war, although it doesn't exactly look like wars past, and it is halfway around the planet. The war is popular, but only so much, with no clear endgame and no pretty way to spin the demonization of the war's domestic opponents. The economy is sort of fine, though maybe really not,...