Bush's State of the Union Address..... Nothing new to see here
posted by
Wally
8:59 AM
As expected, Bush's state of the union was just the same old song and dance, performed before a different, less friendly audience. Sure, there was a slightly less arrogant, slightly more conciliatory tone to the speech - pretending to "reach across the aisle" to the Democrats, who have him by the balls and can put the squeeze on any time they decide to, but it was a pretty thinly veiled charade. Just new make-up on the same old pig.
Mrs. Wally helped me keep track of the SOTU Drinking Game score (which wasn't easy, after the first 15 minutes or so). As expected, he talked about (in no particular order) cutting taxes, medical liability reform, healthcare (private insurance), immigration, cutting the deficit and balancing the budget (oh how we laughed and laughed at that one), oil and energy (nukes and ethanol), "no children left behind" (school vouchers), and of course terrorism, terrorists, terror, and the war on terror. He mentioned terror at least 17 times, and Iraq at least 33 times. Iran popped up only 5 times, but he wisely avoided trying to pronounce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Of course there was the obligatory smattering of "freedom" and "liberty" dropped in. So far, nothing new.
Even his "new plan" for Iraq isn't new. He asked for more time - asking us to have patience to give his "new plan" a chance to work. Hey George - news flash - you already tried this "new plan" a year ago, when troop levels were 20,000 higher than they are right now. We all saw how well it worked. We gave your "new plan" a chance, and it failed. Nice try though. I'm sure 28% of the people watching think it's a nice idea. Then again, those are the same 28% that have trouble tying their shoes or going out in public unsupervised. The same 28% who failed to notice that he only mentioned 9/11 twice, and completely avoided Saddam, Osama, and Katrina.
There were a couple of eye-brow-raising moments. For instance, when talking about decreasing our dependence on foreign oil, he mentioned solar, wind, hybrids and (gasp) "global climate change". He actually said "global climate change" - as if he believes it's real. Holy crap, did the earth just shift a little? Not likely. Just empty words spilling out of his mouth like chunks of pretzel after a successful Heimlich maneuver. Words that will never be backed up by action or financing. Then he went on to talk about nukyooolar power and ethanol (Mrs. Wally said "we know what Halliburton's new businesses are"), and about raising auto fuel economy standards, suggesting a weaker version of what the Democrats have been trying to push through for 10 years.
The only other thing of note was that he didn't have any major fuck ups. They must have had his medications figured out just right. Sure there was the usual slurring throughout the speech, but very few blatant mispronounciations or newly invented words, and very little of the "hula jaw" or other strange ticks, smirks, or giggling while talking about people being murdered that we're used to seeing. His speechwriters were apparently careful not to include too many big words - words like "diplomacy", or "statesmanship", or "Katrina", "Louisiana" or "Mississippi".
Jim Webb didn't have such limitations in his rebuttal. Short, simple, to the point, he didn't go off on needless tangents. He didn't rattle off a laundry list of every issue of any importance whatsover. He didn't fall into the usual Democratic habit of over-analysing the issues, boring the listener with minutiae. He made his points by sticking to a few important issues - the economy as seen by the working class, the war in Iraq, and of course a dig on Katrina - and Bush's utter failure to handle the crisis, or to even mention it in his speech. I also liked the veiled threat at the very end - essentially saying we want to work with you to get things done George, but don't fuck with us, or we'll cut you off at the knees.
According to the Wally household scoring system, it was Jim Webb 2, G.W. Bush 0.
Transcripts of State of the Union and Democratic Response
Videos of State of the Union and Democratic Response can be seen at CSPAN
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