What really distinguished Mr. Obama from the three Republican leaders on display in a single night was not the specifics in the speech. It was the cheerful assertion that if the United States is to regain its footing in the world, it will be government that stands it upright. In surprisingly sunny terms considering the struggle about to begin, he said it was government that had unleashed the engineering of the Space Age and the Internet era. It will be government, he said, that prepares good teachers, makes college affordable, and provides incentives for businesses to hire.

The three Republicans portrayed government as a grim juggernaut that kills jobs and dreams and even, in Ms. Bachmann’s nightmarish vision, enforces light-bulb standards. The only dream they presented was to cut and cut again. Mr. Obama cannot avoid the path toward eventual deficit reduction, but he is more likely than the doomsayers to persuade the nation to join him on the journey.