I think the bailouts were necessary.
The problem is that since the late 70s/early 80s, free market policies have been concentrating all the wealth in the hands of a few people, which means that you can't just let them go bankrupt because the entire economy would collapse.
The way I understood it, when Obama came into power, he could have either bailed them out and let what happened happen, or faced a crash so severe it would have completely ruined the States and by extension a major part of the global economy for about a decade.
Some people thought that they should have just let this happen and that it wouldn't have been that bad, but personally I think they made the right call... yes, some slimeballs got rich and behaved reprehensibly, but if there had been a serious depression it could have been very very bad... like people killing each other for food bad.
What I took from the address was that he was going to ignore the Republicans, stop trying to make everyone happy, and finally be a real leader. Even if some people aren't feeling it, the economy has bounced back and is more or less stable, so it's a perfect time to try to break the grip that the rich have on it.
I don't support everything Obama has done, but the health care act seemed to be a shot at wealth redistribution and it seems to me that he has solid intentions and is still sticking with his original plan. I think that in the coming years we're going to see him try to make up for all of that time he had to spend trying to put band-aids on the 30 year economic mess, just to prevent it from falling apart.