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"In his first State of the Union address where what he said could not cost him an election, President Obama showed real leadership on several issues that are dear to progressives &amp;#x2013; from poor kids to climate change, gun control to the minimum wage. Here the top five moments for liberals from last night&amp;apos;s State of the Union festivities &amp;#x2013; including an unexpected gift from GOP darling Sen. Marco Rubio.\r\n1. The Clarion Call on Climate Change\r\nAfter a re-election campaign where the climate issue disappeared behind the president&amp;apos;s plan for an &amp;quot;all of the above&amp;quot; energy strategy, Obama last night tacked the issue directly and promised action in the face of Congress&amp;apos; intransigence.\r\n&amp;quot;For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat&amp;#xA0;climate change,&amp;quot; Obama said, calling on senators and representatives to heed the &amp;quot;overwhelming judgment of science &amp;#x2013; and act before&amp;#xA0;it&amp;apos;s too late.&amp;quot; Obama urged Congress to &amp;quot;pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change,&amp;quot; which sounded like an effort to revive cap-and-trade. And he followed with a vow that if progress stalled, he would move on his own. &amp;quot;If&amp;#xA0;Congress won&amp;apos;t act soon to protect&amp;#xA0;future generations, I will.&amp;quot;\r\n2. The Push for a Living Minimum Wage\r\nTo address income inequality and poverty in America, Obama made a very specific call to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour and to index that number to the cost of living so that workers at the bottom of the pay scale don&amp;apos;t lose purchasing power over time. &amp;quot;Tonight, let&amp;apos;s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to&amp;#xA0;live in poverty,&amp;quot; Obama said, sounding more than a little like former president Bill Clinton.&amp;#xA0;\r\n3. The Embrace of Universal Preschool\r\nObama called on the federal government to partner with the states to create a system of universal preschool.&amp;#xA0;&amp;quot;Most middle-class parents can&amp;apos;t afford a&amp;#xA0;few hundred bucks a week for private preschool,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;And for poor kids who need&amp;#xA0;help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for&amp;#xA0;the rest of their lives.&amp;quot;\r\nObama pointed to a seven-dollar return on every dollar invested in early education &amp;#x2013; down-the-road savings from &amp;quot;boosting graduation rates,&amp;#xA0;reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime&amp;quot; &amp;#x2013; and cited red states like Oklahoma and Georgia for proving the promise of pre-K education. &amp;quot;Let&amp;apos;s do&amp;#xA0;what works,&amp;quot; he said, &amp;quot;and make sure none of our children start the race of life already&amp;#xA0;behind.&amp;quot;\r\n4. The Demand for a Vote on Gun Control\r\nThe most emotional moment in last night&amp;apos;s speech came when the president demanded in no uncertain terms that Congress vote on gun control. &amp;quot;I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun&amp;#xA0;violence,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;But this time is different.&amp;quot; He insisted on up-or-down votes on universal background checks, tougher penalties for &amp;quot;buying guns for resale to&amp;#xA0;criminals,&amp;quot; and for a renewal of the assault weapons ban &amp;quot;to get weapons of war and massive&amp;#xA0;ammunition magazines off our streets.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;quot;If you want to vote no, that&amp;apos;s&amp;#xA0;your choice,&amp;quot; the president said. &amp;quot;But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the two months since&amp;#xA0;Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations and anniversaries have&amp;#xA0;been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun.&amp;quot; He then marshaled all of his oratorical gifts for a simple staccato theme and variation:\r\n\r\nGabby Giffords deserves a vote.The families of Newtown deserve a vote.The families of Aurora deserve a vote.The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other&amp;#xA0;communities ripped open by gun violence &amp;#x2013; they deserve a simple vote.\r\n\r\n\r\n5. The Sip Seen Round the World\r\nThe out-party&amp;apos;s response to the State of the Union is pretty much always a ridiculous, made-for-TV spectacle. Though it seems a promising venue for rising stars of the opposition to go toe-to-toe with the president, in more recent years it has brought only trouble and chagrin. A couple years back, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gave a response whose oratorical stylings brought unfavorable comparisons to 30 Rock&amp;apos;s Kenneth the Page.&amp;#xA0;\r\nLast night, the GOP&amp;apos;s latest anointed savior, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, again gave liberals much to cheer about &amp;#x2013; when he ruined whatever message he was trying to communicate with a panicked dive stage-left to cure a nasty case of cottonmouth.&amp;#xA0;\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-top-five-liberal-moments-from-obamas-state-of-the-union-20130213>