[Insert Humorous Title About Eric Cantor Being the Minority "Whip"]

Congressman Eric Cantor, who is from Virginia and not a skunk, called President Obama's State of the Union address last night a missed opportunity.

The speech was a chance, he said, for the President "to really regain a little bit of confidence in terms of what he's trying to do." Instead, Obama discounted public opinion in a way that Cantor has not seen during his five terms in the House.

"In this country, since August, the number one issue that has been in the public debate has been health care," said Cantor. And yet it took Obama nearly 45 minutes to mention it in the State of the Union.

For Cantor, there was at least one glaring omissions from last night's oration. "There was absolutely no nod to the voters of Massachusetts, Virginia, or New Jersey," said Cantor, referring to states where Republicans surprisingly, and perhaps ominously, have claimed big victories.

The speech, in Cantor's view, was all over the place. "He said he wanted to fight spending, freeze spending, but then he proceeded to announce program after program of more spending," said Cantor. "He talked about the need to provide small businesses with credit, and the next thing you know, he's taxing the banks."

For a speech that was supposed to provide clarity on the country and its government, Cantor, for one, did not walk away with a sense of where Washington is headed. "Once again, the public is scratching its head," he said.

He was further confounded when Obama challenged the Republicans to come up with a better health care plan if they don't like the one the Democrats have devised.

"Republicans have put forth proposals on health care, on job creation, on energy," Cantor said. "But yet you heard the President stand up last night and accuse Republicans of being obstructionist out of purely political reasons."

Cantor insisted his party's alternative plans are moot, especially in the House where they number only 178 out of 435. "We can't stop anything," he added.

As the Minority Whip in the House of Representatives, Cantor is charged with the task of trying to corral votes, of knowing where the members of his party stand when it comes time to vote. The term "whip," he explained, actually stems from the British parliament.

"In England, it was first derived from the individual who rode horses in a fox hunt to whip the hounds into shape as they were chasing the fox," said Cantor. "The analogy is a loose one."

Actually, it's one of the more concise comparisons we've heard in a while.

-Julie Kanfer