Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address: An Accounting (Washington Post)

Glenn Kessler trains his eye on the president in his latest Fact Checker column, examining each proposal laid out in Obama’s 2011 State of the Union. His grade? An underwhelming 27%, though Kessler caveats this by noting the challenges the president faced with a Republican House — challenges, he says, that are sure to continue in an election year. The president failed in the areas of cutting the federal defecit, strengthening Social Security and reducing corporate tax rates. But which promises did Obama make good on? A jobs-boosting trade agreement with South Korea, for one, along with a repeal of the 1099 provision, the return of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and the death of Al Qaeda.