Since I had to do something productive — you know, work — I missed the propaganda session that was Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

Gov. Scott Walker did not miss the speech, as the Weekly Standard recounts:

Walker’s reforms worked. In two years, Wisconsin’s $3.6 billion biennial deficit has disappeared. The latest projections from the state show Wisconsin with a surplus of $342 million, a figure that does not include funds deposited into the state’s “rainy day” account. As Washington, $16.5 trillion in the red, debates whether the federal government has “a spending problem,” Walker is rolling out additional reforms to make state government leaner in advance of the presentation of his next budget on February 20. Among those new proposals are major changes in Medicaid, welfare, and taxes, all of them designed to further reduce the role of government in the lives of Wisconsinites. With his party in control of both houses in the state legislature and a wonk’s enthusiasm for policy innovation, Walker may be the closest thing to the anti-Obama that exists in a state capitol today. He watches the president’s speech with a keen eye on its implications for states and its broader philosophical message.

As Obama begins, Walker’s eyes alternate between the TV and his BlackBerry, on which he reads along with the president and notes every time Obama departs from his prepared remarks. The president opens with language that could have come from a Ronald Reagan speech, with a call for a limited government that “encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation.”

Walker anticipates that Obama is saying this to set up a contrasting argument. “I agree with all of that,” he says. “It’s too bad everything he’s going to talk about tonight contradicts that.” …

Obama: “Most Americans—Democrats, Republicans, and independents—understand that we can’t just cut our way to prosperity.” (Walker: “We can’t spend our way to prosperity, either. We have to grow.”) “They know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue, with everyone doing their fair share.” (Walker, shaking his head: “How many times can you tax the rich?”)

Obama: “Let’s agree, right here, right now, to keep the people’s government open, pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America.” (Walker: “To pay your bills on time means you don’t spend more than you have.”)

Obama: “I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change.” (Walker: “If there are market-based solutions to climate change, why do we need Congress to act?”) …

Walker, on Obama’s universal preschool proposal: “Where does that money come from?” On the minimum-wage hike: “We need jobs that are well above the minimum wage,   and this will keep young kids who want a job from being able to get one and get into the workforce.”

When the speech is over, Walker offers praise for two passages—on immigration (“not half bad”) and fatherhood—but overall thinks the address was a clunker. “It’s a Trojan horse for more spending,” he says. “I don’t think he made the moral case for why we have to spend more money. He gave us a list of programs and he kind of gave the false perception that we can do all of this without shared sacrifice.”