Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Bush's State of the Union Address

State of the union night. I thought the beginning of the speech was good strategy. First, I think Bush is a good man with good intentions. His opening comments to Palosi and the Democrats were, dare I say, "Christian" and honorable.

I do give Bush and the economic philosophy of his cohort (including Greenspahn) credit for the quick turn around of the economy this decade. I am a Republican in my economics. I'm not competent to judge, but it seems to me that, whether we like it or not, whether it is Christian or not, economies are built when capitalists do their thing. The big economic blunder of Bush is the war in Iraq.

Some ho hum old plans. School choice. Fine, whatever. We'll see if it goes anywhere (I bet not). I'd be glad for something to shake out with health care and immigration. We'll see.

Nice things to say on shifting to alternative sources of energy. I smiled when he said "global climate change" and not "global warming." It's a way to acknowledge the issue without selling out the willful who continue to deny that the human element in global climate change is beyond reasonable doubt.

Bush's narrative of the Iraq story really leaves me speechless, dumbfounded. Is he even on the same planet as I am? Interesting subtle attempt to connect 9-11 to Iraq by calling them Sunni extremists. Again, no connection. He continues to make it sound like no one could have foreseen that these things would happen when there were a thousand voices he refused to listen to. Terrorists fear freedom, he says. I picture them laughing at him every time he says this nonsense. I don't know what the answer is but I'm glad Bush can't just continue blindly to do whatever Cheney wants anymore.

"Not the fight we entered but the one we're in"? No, we are responsible for this mess. Sheez.

Good words on Darfur. I hope he follows through.

2 comments:

::athada:: said...

Those without cable TV thank you for the summary. I pretty much gave up on SOTU speeches after I realized that they usually sound the same, "Our nation is in peril, oh yes, but we are as strong as ever. Well, as long as we can overcome partisan politicans and beat the war on ________ (terror, inflation, poverty, illegal immigrants, pedophiles, etc)." But they do seem to be good discussion points from which to launch...

Glenn Knepp said...

I was only able to catch clips here and there. I did see him comment on Darfur and the entire chamber stood applauding. Unfortunately a willingness to stand and clap does not translate into action.

Even more unfortunate is that this lack of action is not a result of being overburdened in Iraq seemingly. We have gotten involved in Somalia and also in the sending of an aircraft carrier to threaten Iran. Darfur waits... nothing is done.