In Tuesday's State of the Union address, President Obama turned that old feminist rallying cry that "the personal is political" on its ear with a long list of proposals that argued that the personal is economic -- and the economic is political.
The key question Americans have to face is whether it makes sense to let the gun lobby hold more power than citizens who want to live without fear of a well-armed mad gunman going off in a crowd.
Now that midterm elections are over, President Barack Obama and Republicans have promised to work together. But how long will the spirit of cooperation last? One of the first big tests will be whether Congress can raise its debt ceiling early next year.