Tonight’s State of the Union address was President Obama’s first speech of the 2012 campaign. As such, I was very interested in what sort of tone he would strike. Would he be closer to the post-partisan uniter of 2008, a tone he clung to even in the face of unprecedented GOP obstruction, or the anti-inequality populist he needs to be to win in 2012?

Overall, I think Obama is making progress in the right direction. When dealing with the topics of inequality and fair taxation, I think he makes a strong, clear case for why reducing inequality is all about American values:

We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. [From prepared remarks, via the LA Times]

Here’s another one:

We don’t begrudge financial success in this country.  We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it’s not because they envy the rich.  It’s because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don’t need and the country can’t afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference – like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That’s not right.  Americans know it’s not right.

The problem I had, though, was with Obama’s continuing effort to prove he’s the grownup in the room, and the way he takes pains to validate certain Republican ideas. Some say he was “co-opting their language” for the 2012 campaign. I think he was ceding intellectual ground to them.

Given the insane level of Republican rhetoric these days, the 2012 campaign is not going to be a lucid discussion of the subtleties between the two candidates’ plans. It’s going to be a debate over high-level ideas. I don’t think you can win an argument like that by accepting your opponent’s ideas and validating their framing.

For the rest of 2012, Obama needs to stick as strongly as possible to the themes his campaign wants to emphasize. It’s all well and good to try to show that you’re a reasonable guy, but it’s been over three years and that hasn’t worked for him. It’s time to finally let it go and develop an intense focus on restoring the economy for the 99 percent.