Karl Rove and Michael Tomasky may be unaware of their disagreement, but it's hard to find two positions so diametrically opposed. "The State of the Union Is No 'Reset' Button," proclaims the headline of Karl Rove's Wall Street Journal op-ed, released within minutes of the speech's end. "State of the Union pressed reset button," declares Tomasky's morning hed. Would these two care to duke it out in person?

Tomasky says Obama's goal was "to reclaim some control over the agenda, which he had basically lost since about last October, when it became apparent that the signature healthcare initiative was going to take longer to pass than Hadrian took to build his wall." As he asks, "so did he?" To answer his own question: "Yes, for now." But Rove argues that though regaining control may well have been Obama's aim, presidential approval ratings actually tend to slide after the State of the Union, when there's any change at all.

So which is it?

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Heather Horn