The Single Best Line In Obama's State Of The Union

Tuesday night, President Obama addressed Congress and the nation in his seventh and final State of the Union address. Talking about the major problems facing the country — of which there are quite a few — he criticized the gridlock partisan politics has created in Washington and even subtly bashed GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. However, the best line of President Obama's State of the Union speech was actually about climate change.

Don't get me wrong — there were a lot of powerful and moving moments. President Obama touched on the fact that the world seems to be morphing into an entirely new place, saying, "We live in a time of extraordinary change — change that's reshaping the way we live, the way we work, our planet and our place in the world." Remembering past times America has experienced major societal changes, he said: "Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control." Clearly a dig at Trump's "Make America Great Again" motto, it was also a plea to embrace change, not fear it.

The absolute best line came later, though, when President Obama discussed the role America needs to take in combating climate change (the one type of change he considered negative). He said:

Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn't deny Sputnik was up there. We didn't argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.

Bringing up America's past willingness to rely on science, which allowed the country to put a man on the moon, highlighted why global warming skeptics need to get on board with climate initiatives. While members of Congress are slow to accept the scientific facts, temperatures continue to increase and America continues to do little to stop it.

The stellar quote also points out how investing in space exploration helped advance the country, just as putting money and efforts toward cleaning up the environment would. Climate change deniers worry that limiting industries' emissions and changing the way the economy currently functions would cause people to lose money and jobs, but it would actually make America a world leader in tackling one of the largest problems facing the entire globe.

Hopefully President Obama's spot-on analogy put the climate issue into perspective for Congress and Americans watching from home. Sometimes people just need to be reminded of what's worked well in the past and why denying proven facts doesn't help the nation improve and move forward.