Franklin D. Roosevelt said the Presidency “is preeminently a place of moral leadership.” President Obama’s State of the Union met that standard.

The President channeled FDR, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan all in his speech. He rose above the usual political theater than these speeches have become. He set out an optimistic vision of America that dwarfed the pinched, angry venting of the Trumps and Cruzes and most every politician in Washington (especially the Republicans). And he set a moral standard that reminded us of what politics ought to be and could be in a great country like ours.

Even his critics had to concede it was a great speech and great politics. But they had to carp, and their usual crap (excuse me, carp) was that he didn’t live up to his own ideal in his seven years as President.

Well, whose fault is that other than the obnoxious obstructionists in the Republican Party who have done everything they could every day for every one of the last seven years to keep Obama from succeeding, even if it kept America and Americans from succeeding?

Obama reminded us that hope and change are still possible. He showed clearly that neither hope nor change is likely to come to the Republican Party.

He has shown Democrats the path to sunnier days. He blazed the path. We won’t get there while he’s President. But the next Democratic President can.