State of the Union-Pre-Game

As we look out at the President's State of the Union Address, here is the question I have:

How on earth does he do it?

Seriously, I don't agree with every policy decision made by the Administration, and I often find deeply frustrating the President's repeated efforts to find reasonable negotiating partners in a GOP that seems to me to have collectively gone crackerdog. But here's the thing: Barack Obama is extremely calm despite ongoing birther lawsuits, a Republican frontrunner (Gingrich) who claims that the President 's policies are inspired by radical Kenyan anti-colonialism, and another one (Romney) who accuses him of causing the 2008 crash and all the harm stemming therefrom.

We have Romney trying to condemn the President for taking a Romney plan nation-wide:



Gingrich using racist code language:



Ron Paul wrapping himself, almost literally, in the Confederate flag:



And Santorum being...Santorum (Sorry, Rick, the only thing that Obama and King George III have in common is that tea has been a thorough nuisance to them, albeit in different ways).

And yet, he remains calm, and cool.

As I write this, he's about to rise. Is it to the occasion?