Well, I guess we can be thankful at least that the address was short and started on time. That having been said, it imparted almost absolutely no new information. He did refer to Nidala Hasan’s attack at Ft. Hood as terrorism (no word on whether the victims’ families will now be able to get their benefits) and also the attack on the Marines recruiting station in Chattanooga. He also definitively called the attack in San Bernardino terrorism, reaching a conclusion that was fairly obvious by last Thursday morning.

Otherwise, there was absolutely nothing new from the same pablum Obama has had on offer for months if not years. “Remember, I killed Bin Laden. Our resolve remains strong and we will defeat ISIS (words no one takes him seriously on anymore, for good reason). We will not put ground troops back in Iraq. We’re gonna do more to ensure people here without a valid Visa haven’t been to terror sponsoring countries, which, not entirely sure how since Turkey’s border doesn’t exist, but that sounds like a good thing to say. Even though it wouldn’t have done any good, I’m gonna go ahead and demagogue this gun issue because you all would be surprised if I didn’t. Muslims are good people and shouldn’t be treated differently. And now I’m late for a Gilmore Girls binge watching session with my wife, I mainly just wanted to remind you all that as President of the United States, I can even mess with your football for no apparent reason at all.”

It was not a terrible speech, by Obama’s standards, but neither did it serve any purpose at all. I mainly feel sorry for the talking heads on cable who are having to pretend that Obama just said something newsworthy so that they can justify having made such a production out of the fact that it was about to occur.