Barack Obama addresses the nation

Were you too busy partying on Mardi Gras, putting your baby to bed, working late or visiting with your CW friends to watch the president's speech Tuesday night? Fear not, my friends. I gave up an hour (plus 15ish minutes) of my time to take notes for you. Here's my own little unofficial, unauthorized re-cap of President Barack Obama's speech. You can find a transcript here

Seventeen minutes into President Obama's address to congress (and us) and the speech finally begins. My gosh. If we're going to have to watch 16 minutes (we clapped for Michelle for one minute) of political leaders walking, can we at least add a red carpet and some gowns?

Eighteen minutes and we're clapping again. Twenty-one minutes and more clapping. Twenty-two minutes and (you guessed it) more clapping. Can we please get going?
Tax cuts? O.K. now I'm clapping.

Some more cheering (and standing) for the plan to offer more small-business loans. The housing plan to help "responsible" families make payments and save money on their mortgages gets a few claps. Almost everyone stands for help for American tax payers and against evil corporate bosses fleeing their responsibilities on cushy jets.

Obama's budget plan has three main components: energy, health care and education.
Energy: It's time for America to lead again. The nation that invented cars won't step away.
Health care: Seeking a cure for cancer in our time. Reform. Health care has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough. "It will not wait."
Education: Those countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. Invest in innovative programs, expand commitment to charter schools. Every American needs to commit to at least one year of higher education. Dropping out of high school is no longer an option. By 2020 America will have the highest number of college graduates. Responsibility for our children's education must begin at home. It's not a democratic or republican issue, it's an American issue.

We're done with the three components of the budget, but not the speech. Time for more clapping...

Our future: Don't pass onto our children a debt they cannot pay. The recovery will not be easy, but the recovery plan will not raise taxes for those families who make less than $250,000 a year. These families will not pay one more dime. Repeat. Not one more dime.

The war: We will responsibly end the war. We will not allow terrorists in safe havens across the world to threaten Americans. We will support our troops 100 percent. We will raise their pay and give them the expanded benefits that they have earned. There's clapping and standing at this point as the cameras' pan to several servicemen standing near the First Lady.

More clapping as cameras show a bank president who split his $60 million bonus among his current and former workers, the leader of a town in Kansas that was destroyed by a tornado that's now being powered by clean energy and a little girl who wrote a letter to her government asking for help to save her school because the students are not quitters.

Just as American's are not quitters. The recovery will not be easy, but American's don't take the easy route, they take the necessary one. (In case you have still have too much Mardi Gras beer sloshing around your brain, that means this plan is the necessary route.)

Overall, there was a lot of clapping, standing and cheering. However, there was some booing and face-making at certain points. When Obama said there were no earmarks in the recovery plan that passed, there was quite a loud bit of booing. (It has been reported that there are in fact several earmarks). There were many unhappy faces shown when Obama called the national debt the "inherited" national debt. (Was that fair to George W. Bush? Debatable. Was it true? Yes.)

Whatever you may have thought of the message, you have to admit the man gives a good speech. Now let's hope he's good for the economy.