SOTU: Obama vows to 'keep promise alive'

Trumpeting the renewal of the American dream, an inspired and at times defiant President Barack Obama outlined his agenda to recharge the U.S. economy in his third State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

"The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive," the president said in reference to the American dream. "No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."

Watch Part II of Obama's SOTU address

Obama several times alluded to partisan divisions in Congress as roadblocks to progress, saying that he would either work with Republicans or plow through them.

"What's at stake aren't Democratic values or Republican values, but American values, and we have to reclaim them."

He continued, “As long as I’m president, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.”

On education, Obama floated a plan that would ensure that high school students graduate. “Tonight, I am proposing that every state, every state requires that every student stays in high school until they graduate or turn 18,” he said.

Delivering the Republican response, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels struck a moderate and respectful tone but chided the president for not outlining a forceful plan to curb America's $15 trillion debt. “When President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave he must know in his heart that this is not true. The president did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight, but he was elected on a promise to fix them. And he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse.”

"It was irresponsible for him not to recognize the dire circumstances our country is in because of our debt," conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina said. "He spent his speech making some more promises from government."

Obama also used the time to address themes he will likely refine on the campaign trial, such as jobs, the tax code and immigration.

Remarking on Obama’s invocation of the “Buffet rule,” where he said "If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes," Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston said in the Huffington Post that the president “virtually dropped the theme of inequality,” which he had focused on in earlier speeches.

“This was a wise shift: in America's public culture, the principle of fair opportunity is more powerful than is equality of wealth and income,” Galston said.

Political columnist David Brooks, speaking on PBS late Tuesday, said the speech was Obama’s “most Clintonian.”

Citing the need to reform antiquated laws, Obama was even able to crack a joke, saying “We got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a spill -- because milk was somehow classified as an oil. With a rule like that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk.” Some got the joke, but only after a wide grin from the president.

"It's time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America," Obama said, adding a challenge to Congress he repeated throughout the night to send him a bill that he pledged to sign "right away."

Perhaps the night’s highest moment was when Obama tightly hugged Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords for several seconds, underlining the special significance of having her back among her Capitol Hill peers. Giffords vowed to attend the speech as one of the last acts of her term, which ends this week as the Democrat continues to recover from a gunshot wound to the head.

HLN readers, what did you think about the president's SOTU address?