(people talking over each other)

– President Barack Obama's final State of the Union speech is in the history books. I'm John Philips and this is The Rundown. Predictably, he said our economy is great, the world's at peace, he's done a fantastic job. He wants you to believe the greatest threat to our nation isn't Islamic terrorism, nuclear armed creeps like North Korea and Iran, the collapse of the US middle class. No, no, no, it's global warming, followed closely by Donald Trump. Yes, just after lamenting the fact that he hadn't succeeded in destroying partisanship during his time in the White House, he spent a good part of the speech attacking Republicans. Not only did he go after conservatives with his words, the guest list of people he invited to sit with the First Lady was custom tailored to irritate anyone who isn't a dedicated leftist. Let's go ahead and take a look at who was in attendance. Sue Ellen Allen, a woman convicted of fraud who fled the United States until finally returning and spending six years in the slammer. She's now a crusader for criminal justice reform. In other words, letting more criminals like her out of prison. Refaai Hamo, a Syrian refugee with cancer was there. Major Lisa Jaster, an Army Reserve officer and the first female to graduate from Ranger School. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, representing, of course, the 1%. Jim "Oger" Obergefell, excuse me, the plaintiff in the case that legalized gay marriage. Ryan Reyes, a man whose boyfriend was killed in the San Bernardino terrorist attack but is not spending all of his time saying we shouldn't worry about Islam. Naveed Shah, a Muslim immigrant and US Army veteran who served in Iraq. And Oscar Vazquez, an illegal alien who has since gained legal status and also served in the Army. The list goes on and on, but the intent is clear: illegal aliens, refugees, Muslims, women, tech CEOs and even convicted criminals are all wonderful people and we should stop questioning them. Got that? Look, President Obama's on his way out. He's just getting an early start on what he's gonna spend the rest of his life doing, which is defending one of the most controversial and divisive presidencies in the history of the office. He spent more time in office criticizing the American people than anything else and he's terrified of the legacy of bitterness that constant presidential scolding has created. To talk about the President's speech and legacy, joining us from Dallas, Texas is author and political satirist, Scott Ott. And here in Southern California, stand up comic and PJTV contributor, Stephen Kruiser. Kruiser, could he have been more aggressively belligerent last night with his guest list if he tried? – No, he couldn't, and they're so over the top with this, I mean, they even gave the poor refugee cancer just to fit him in there with the narrative. Only the Democrats would do that. The Republicans would never give anybody cancer just for the optics of it. So, no it was like, I'm glad somebody countered with Kim Davis, even though I wasn't a huge Kim Davis fan, but the fact that the State of the Union has devolved into this thing where it's this purely political hack thing, I pray all the time that we'll go back to the days when the President just wrote it down on a piece of paper and sent it in because this has gotten ridiculous. I really hope the next President, whomever it is, doesn't do this because it really cheapens everything. This guy's cheapened the oval office in ways even Bill Clinton couldn't dream of at times, but it really does demean the whole thing. And then to wrap it up with this new politics garbage and let's be nicer to each other, after you just stuck your middle finger in somebody's face for an hour, was just so galling. I thought my eyes were gonna, I thought they were gonna do a slot machine thing and just keep rolling like that in my head. – You know, Scott, I gotta be honest with you, I didn't watch the speech on television, I had to read the transcript afterwards because I knew it would just make me so angry, I couldn't do it. But I am glad that he gave this speech on his way out because this speech was written and delivered by petulant scolds. And that, to me, is going to be the Obama legacy outside of destroying the health care industry and outside of what's going on in Iran and around the world right now. But I think it is his calling card, don't you? – Well, you know, like you I had the wisdom to not watch this speech last night. In fact, me and my wife and my children all went to see a movie and it was perfectly timed because we were at this place where you can eat food and see a movie and we, you know, they serve you like a restaurant in the place and as we came out of the theater at the end of the movie, there were a bunch of people sitting around this bar cheering. And I looked up on the screen, I thought, "I thought football season was over," and I look up on the screen and there's President Obama just having said the last words of the State of the Union address. And I went over to one of the guys sitting at the bar and I said, "Are these a bunch of people who just "happened to wander in here and are cheering "for the President's State of the Union address?" And he and an elderly woman next to him, she was about my age, said, "Oh no, we're the Young Democrats of Collin County." (laughing) Now you know it bodes well for the Democratic Party when the lady about my age is part of the Young Democrats, but I think I'm with Kruiser. I think we need to go back to the days when the President submitted the State of the Union in writing. There was a real purpose for that, by the way. It didn't just used to be a show, the purpose of the State of the Union was that for the most part of the year, the legislature wasn't in Washington. And the President was supposed to bring Congress up to speed on what was going on and recommend to them any things that he thought would be worthy of their consideration. And instead it's turned out to be a pageant. – That's right and Congress likes it because they get to be on television too. You saw Paul Ryan there in the back corner of the screen throughout the entire speech. All of the female members of Congress, I love this, the guys all wear the dark suits and the ties. The women that show up, it's the one day a year that they all wear red because they want to be noticed on television and they all get their early, including Sheila Jackson Lee, where they, and Janice Hahn, here in California, where they fight for seats near the walkway, so that way they can get the hug and the kiss from the President as he's going down, which takes like 15 or 20 minutes with all the pageantry of a drug dealer's daughter's quinceanera. And they get the kiss and they get their five minutes of fame, or however long it is, and then they go home happy. – Well, it's more of Hollywood, I mean, more of Washington being Hollywood for ugly people, this is their little, it's almost like their Oscars, you know? They get to get together, there's not really a red carpet but they talk to them about it a lot. And Congress really is just, they're audience members. They have nothing to do with this, really, but it's their big, like you said, it's just attention "you know whating" and it's just, the whole spectacle of it, I just, (stutters). What he was doing last night, though, let me get to this, 'cause this is what was really bugging me. I knew as soon as he started how this was gonna go. I knew it was gonna be, this is what we've accomplished and I'm listening to his fairy tale version of America right now and I knew right then that all of the mainstream press was just gonna run with that as fact. And I've been following it since the speech ended last night and that's what they've been doing. They've been repeating what he said, nobody challenging anything. I listened to, on NPR this morning, that's my dirty little secret, I listen to a lot of NPR (laughs). On NPR this morning, there was this woman waxing about signature Obama eloquence and calling for healing and wholeness, and I was just (laughs), I was like, these people are living in a fantasy novel. They're not reality based at all anymore. So I knew that's where it was gonna go. Once you realize that, once you manage your expectations and know that, he's slightly less annoying. I was slightly less annoyed last night, not just 'cause he's on his way out, 'cause I think he's gonna be a bigger nightmare as an ex-President than as a President. But it's just once you've managed your expectations and know that they're all just completely full of it, it's a little easier. – You know, Scott, Dick Morris once said that every time Bill Clinton gave one of these speeches he would move the needle. Did Barack Obama move the needle of public opinion at all last night?

– I didn't think he was using those needles anymore, but, uh, yeah, I'm sure he inflamed the passions of the Collin County Young Democrats and others who are like them. I mean, those people, literally, were cheering at what he said, so in that sense, he probably fired up the base. I doubt he made any difference in the minds of people like us, I mean, that just doesn't happen. And, frankly, I think most Americans are probably like me in that I might sit through that speech if it wasn't punctuated every five seconds by applause that lasted longer than the speech. So here's what I'm gonna do, I have video editing software, I'm gonna have somebody take the speech, one of my children, maybe, and I'm gonna have them take all of the applause out and put it in one file and then all of the speech parts in the other file and then I'm gonna watch the speech and I'm gonna send the applause reel to the White House because that's the only reason that President Obama is interested in this at all. He is Lady Gaga's disciple. He lives for the applause, applause, applause. – You know what, you guys? Since neither one of you watched it, I am not making this up and I commented about it on Twitter last night. They were the most tepid applause breaks from the Democrats that he's ever gotten during a State of the Union address. In all of his years there, they were just like, there were a couple that were yea, yea, yea with the screaming and the whooping. Most of them were like, "Oh, this is the part "where we're supposed to stand up and clap, huh? "Yeah, okay, now we need to sit down." It was like they were at the Ellen show and somebody had the applause sign or something. – It was liturgical. – [Stephen] It was easily the most tepid response he's ever gotten from his partisans. – Were you surprised that there wasn't much, if anything, about the Iran boat situation? Where our boats were seized by Iran? The State of the Union address, we have two boats that are seized by a hostile nation and that's not point one? – Because our guys were being interrogated at the time so he wasn't going to say that and they probably knew that and they went out and lied about it right before the State of the Union address. Josh Earnest said, "Well, they're going to be sent on "their way promptly." No, well they're gonna be sent on their way promptly after we interrogate them and they didn't mention that. They left that out. That hit the news at midnight Pacific last night. – Should that have been part of it, Scott? – Yeah, I think that there are security purposes for not saying anything about it, however, I think that if this charade that the Kerry State Department and the Obama administration wants us to believe is actually true, that we now have an honest negotiating partner in Iran, one that can be trusted to fulfill the obligations to which they pledged themselves, then why not say, you know, in the State of the Union address, even if the want to keep the company line, why doesn't the President say, "Iran, we want to thank you for rescuing our guys "from that island. "We expect them to be back aboard our ships "within the hour, appreciate it"? – Do you think Democrats hoped and wished that he would have said something complimentary of Hillary Clinton in the speech? Touted her time as Secretary of State? – I think, no because the Democrats and the upper levels know that the Clintons and the Obamas don't like each other. I don't think they were expecting it. I think he did, he went as far as he could because he mostly advanced campaign policy ideas in this speech. He went for the stuff that she's going for: health care, global warming, blah, blah, blah– – Wait a minute– – [Stephen] Campaign finance reform– – [John] His Vice-President, Joe Biden just, essentially, attacked Hillary Clinton on her commitment to the middle class and wealth and equality. That was one of the themes of the speech last night. – I don't think anybody is thinking that Biden's on the reservation on anything. But, no, I think if you listen, right at the beginning, he came out and outlined, basically, a Democrat stump speech for this election. That's what he did first. – I sensed a backhand to Hillary. Did you see that, Scott, at all, where he didn't tout any of her accomplishments as Secretary of State, he brought up the issue of wealth and equality, which his Vice-President, who's in the same screen shot as him, attacked Hillary Clinton on earlier in the week. Did you sense kind of a little, no love lost between the two? – Well, here's the problem, he cannot be seen as endorsing Hillary Clinton or even suggesting that he might endorse Hillary Clinton because he has already committed himself to Joe Biden. Remember back when, when Joe Biden was toying with running for president? He basically said that Joe Biden would make an excellent president. Hillary Clinton, by the way, the day after or maybe the day of the speech, I'm not sure exactly when it hit YouTube, released a video endorsing President Obama's position on gun control, his Executive Orders on gun control. And the name of the video is "I'm With Him." And so I think Clinton may sense that there's a little distance there and she wants to pull a little closer at least for the time being. – All right, we're gonna have to leave it there, that's all the time we have for today. But now it's your turn, what will the lasting legacy of President Obama really be? And what is the state of the union he leaves us with? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. I'm John Phillips, thanks so much for watching The Rundown. (fast-paced music)