I enjoyed Obama’s speech last night, but boy, Bobby Jindal sure bombed, didn’t he?

Obama’s speech: for the first time in 15 years, there were three Democrats on the podium. That was refreshing. It wasn’t until this morning that I realized that of those three, only one of them was a white male. It’s become unexceptional, that’s how long it took me to notice. (And just imagine if Hillary Clinton had won the nomination, picked Obama as her running mate, and won the election: there would have been two women and a black man up there.)

For me, the address gave Obama an infusion of president-ness that had been lacking lately. He’s seemed very wonkish and intellectual in the last couple of weeks, which, believe me, is a wonderful thing to see in a president after the previous eight years, but I was itching to see him engage in this traditional presidential ritual, speaking from the well of Congress, with tons of pomp and ceremony and applause and a huge American flag behind him. Occasionally over the last month I’ve forgotten that Bush is no longer president — it was a long eight years, after all — but events like last night’s address help me remember that we’ve moved on.

As for Jindal: I turned it off after about 30 seconds, because I got home really late last night and by the time I finished watching Obama I needed to go to bed. But apparently even Fox News thinks he bombed. And, hilariously, tons of people think he sounded exactly like Kenneth the Page. I thought to myself, “Really?” And then I began watching the speech again with that in mind, and I swear to god it was so funny I almost had tears in my eyes. (If you’ve never seen “30 Rock,” one of my favorite current shows, here’s a collection of Kenneth moments that everyone is linking to.)

Honestly, I don’t know why the opposition party bothers with these responses. They rarely turn out well, no matter which party it is. Kathleen Sebelius bombed, Bob Dole bombed, Jindal bombed. It’s a hopeless task — just let it go.