WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama used his first State of the Union address to affirm his plan for new jobs, health care and cleaner energy and to castigate banker bonuses and lobbyists for failing to end Washington’s “tired battles” of partisanship. His 71-minute speech ranked as the sixth longest in presidential history (the famously long-winded Bill Clinton has four of the five longest speeches.)

A great orator, there was humility but no remorse in Obama’s words or the way in which he delivered them. He hailed and commended American values and at moments appeared less as the man in the White House than the guy next door. For most of the speech, the president played politics of a kind that only a master speech-maker would dare do — he presented himself as an outsider. He attacked the way Wall Street prospers while Main Street struggles and denounced the Washington elite, especially in the Senate for sticking to politics as usual, warning voters were losing faith in government.

The speech, Obama’s third to a joint session of Congress, comes at a particularly rocky point in his presidency, with many Americans - including some fellow Democrats - complaining that the president has lost sight of the priorities of ordinary people. Obama acknowledged their doubts, conceding that some of his political setbacks “were deserved,” a striking admission for any president.

His tone was colloquial, even relaxed. At one point he joked that the bank bailout was “about as popular as root canal.” He also showed himself to be capable of healthful self-mockery.

After announcing his intention to hold regular weekly meetings with Republican and Democratic leadership, Obama said with a softly sarcastic smile, “I know you can’t wait.” Earlier he used the same understated tone when he told the crowd: “By now it should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was good politics.” The president responded to public anger by promising action on jobs, after what he acknowledged had been a difficult year. What was the reaction to the speech? CBS News conducted an instant poll after the speech and found the response to be overwhelmingly positive: 83% of speech watchers approve of the proposals the president made in his speech tonight. 17% disapprove.

Ezra Klein, at The Washington Post, agrees that it was “a good speech that needs a good follow-through,” starting with health care reform. “It’s hard to imagine voters buying Obama’s narrative of progress and achievement unless they see, well, some progress and some achievements. Obama made a strong statement in favor of health-care reform, but he didn’t call on the House to pass the Senate bill, or the Senate to pass modifications, or for any alternative path to be followed. Success here will be measured not in reactions to the speech, but in the outcome of the effort.”

Michael Crowley, at The New Republic, says “overall, I find this to be a strong, fluid speech,” but he isn’t too impressed with the foreign policy aspects. It took Obama about an hour to utter the word ‘terrorist.’ This is not George W. Bush. I do think he glossed over the security gaps exposed by the underwear bomber a bit quickly; it felt like he didn’t want to be talking about it at all. I find the foreign policy section a bit pat.”

He added: “Granted, Obama gave a long speech about Afghanistan just a few weeks ago. But he might have done more to weave his commitment into the Big Picture for America.”

Andrew Sullivan, political commentator and administrator of The Daily Dish blog said: “This was the president I supported and still support and will support because he alone is calling us away from the cynicism, the ideology, the rhetorical poison, and the red-blue divide that keep us from the reform we desperately need.”