President Obama’s speech today was long on words and short on new ideas. I know some pundits are disappointed but, as I wrote earlier today, they shouldn't be. Obama has laid out his philosophy and proposals. So has Mitt Romney. The campaign is all about contrasting the two. And, boy, is the contrast stark.

Obama would preserve the safety net and most other federal programs, including the expansions of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, then impose a combination of (relatively) moderate cuts to some federal programs and (relatively) moderate tax increases on the wealthy. Romney would dramatically reduce government, including the safety net, and dramatically reduce taxes, mostly to benefit the wealthy.

That all sounds very esoteric, so let me put it in human terms. The difference between Romney’s vision, rather than Obama’s, would be many fewer people with health insurance, into the tens of millions; less money for a variety of federal programs, including ones that help young people pay for college, enable poor people to get food, and provide public safety; fewer dollars for repairing broken down bridges, upgrading public transportation and other infrastructure investments; and much, much lower taxes for wealthy Americans. (The effects on the economy would be dramatically different, as well, although those effects are more difficult to state unequivocally, because they are more subject to assumptions and predispositions about economic theory.)

When Obama laid out differences, he said "This is not spin. This is not my opinion. These are facts." That prompted an outburst of snark from conservatives on twitter:

James Taranto: “This is not political spin.” That means it’s political spin.

John Podhoretz: He always gets into trouble when he says “This is not my opinion.”

David Hogberg: This is not spin, not my opinion, these are facts = It is spin, it is my opinion, they are lies.

I try to avoid highlighting twitter comments, because it's difficult to capture nuance in 140 characters. (I've certainly struggled with it.) I also get the joke. Obama uses those expressions a lot and, yes, they get a little tiresome. But that's always how conservatives respond when Obama cites evidence: They dismiss it as spin, as if he made up all those facts and figures.