SOTU Reaction

I was generally pleased, although maybe not quite as enthusiastic as Mark. This summary from John J. Miller captures my feelings fairly well:

SOTU BEST & WORST [John J. Miller]
A so-so speech. The foreign-policy section was better than the domestic section. Bonus points for keeping the delivery to 51 minutes. I like it when presidents stick to schedules and have early bedtimes.

Best line: "There is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy."

Second best line: "If there are people inside our country who are talking with Al Qaida, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again." (Yet I do prefer a slightly different formulation from January 1: "If somebody from al Qaeda is calling you, we'd like to know why.")

Worst line: "Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security..." It gave the Democrats an opening to applaud this failure. And rather than using this interruption as an opportunity to chide their irresponsibility, the president continued with only the vaguest of warnings ("yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away") and then called for a commission. Lame, lame, lame.

Worst metaphor: "America is addicted to oil." I eat food every day. Am I addicted to it, like a junkie, or do I merely need it to stay healthy?

Pleasant surprise: Zimbabwe! Has a president ever mentioned Zimbabwe in a SOTU? This little hellhole of a country, which once seemed to have a promising future, deserves more international attention and condemnation for abusing its citizens and destroying its potential.

Weirdest moment: As he exited the chamber, Bush signed lots of autographs. He was like an all-star baseball player mobbed by kids at a stadium. Does he interact with Congress so infrequently that they're star struck in his presence? Are any of those signed SOTU programs now for sale on Ebay?

The Democrats aren't loyal opposition, they are just opposition looking for opportunities to score political points. That's sad, as they could serve as a useful corrective to some of this administration's policies (e.g., immigration) if they were a serious opposition party trying to do what's best for the country. They are not.