President Barack Obama's first annual address, called a "supermarket of a speech" by syndicated columnist Mark Shields, has also drawn a supermarket of responses from politicians across the state.
Pat Brady, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, was one of the first to respond.
"After his agenda took a stunning defeat in Massachusetts, President Barack Obama claims he finally gets the message and has opted to join the American people in their anger," Brady wrote in a statement. "What he fails to understand is that the frustration stems directly from the leftward agenda he has tried to push through Congress despite the overwhelming protests of voters."
Democrat Jacob Meister, the openly gay U.S. Senate candidate, celebrated Obama's call to end the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
"On behalf of the estimated 13,000 men and women who have left the military, the thousands who have been deterred from entering it and those who are forced to live a life of hypocrisy solely because of this demoralizing and discriminatory policy," Meister wrote, "I say to the president, it is about time."
Cheryle Jackson, a fellow Democrat also running for the Senate, took an I-told-you-so approach.
"President Obama tonight recognized what I have been talking about since Day 1 of my campaign for the U. S. Senate," she wrote. "Middle-class families are frustrated by the slow pace of Washington to address their economic plight. If there are no jobs, there is no recovery."
Dan Hynes, a Democrat for governor and former primary rival of Obama's, had only glowing things to say about the speech. Hynes has been under plenty of fire lately from Gov. Pat Quinn about his past attacks on Obama during the 2004 Democratic Senate primary.
"I applaud the blueprint President Obama laid out tonight in his State of the Union address," Hynes wrote. "Eloquent as always, the president was right on the substance. His commonsense approach to dealing directly with our most pressing problems should be a guide here in Illinois."
Republican David Ratowitz, running for Democrat Mike Quigley's 5th District congressional seat, apparently slept on the speech before letting his thoughts known. But in an e-mail this morning, it appears he spent more time thinking of similies than trying to cool his concerns.
"The president’s proposals are like a surgeon only using the dullest and rustiest of scalpels," Ratowitz wrote. "Americans have proven time and again that individuals are the best source of new jobs. The answer to bad government is less government, not more."