Are they finally serious?

State of the Union speeches tend to be predictable. The state of the union is always strong. But surely the president would at least show a little emotional scarring from last November, right?

Nope.

President Obama sounded like a quarterback with a couple of Super Bowl rings.

“I have no more campaigns to run,” he said as the audience began to clap. “My only agenda …” he was cut off as snickers joined the claps. “I know because I won both of them.”

But he also said, “Imagine if we broke out of these tired old patterns. Imagine if we did something different.”

Like maybe get serious about finding ways to put more people in jobs that pay enough so they can afford to have a family before they’re past child-bearing age? That would be good.

Senator Joni Ernst seemed to be on board with that in her Republican response.

“We see our neighbors agonize over stagnant wages and lost jobs,” said Ernst. “We see too many moms and dads put their own dreams on hold.”

She promised the new Republican majority would take a new approach.

“We’re working hard to pass the kind of serious, job creations ideas that you deserve.”

She emphasized “serious” and used the word three times.

“You’ll see a lot of serious work in our new Congress,” she said.

It’s reassuring because there are a lot of smart and talented young people in this country who are working seriously below their pay grade, to the point they have to put off having families and can’t save for retirement.

Young people who’ve been wondering when we’d finally get a Congress that was serious about being serious. Could it be that day has come?