State of the Union Address

[Cobra]

I'm gona try to watch some of it and will give my opinion after. These types of speeches are normally pretty good.

Good luck president Bush, your gona nead it.

[Labrocca]

Bush is a terrible speaker and it pains me to watch the SOTUA. I just watch the highlights and commentary as soon as it's over.

[Cobra]

I know, I'm not watching just listening from the other room. I normally just read his speeches and listen to the comments after but since the State of the Union is a one year thing I can handle.

He hasn't talked Iraq yet, maybe saving that till last.

[wonder cow]

[please delete my thread on the subject]

So far, a little making nice, NCLB hack..act, balance the budget, blah, blah, blah about health insurance, immigration reform, energy independence (HaHa--yea right).

One short shot of Hillary smirking.

Suspicious about the health insurance thing.

Not one mention about "tare-err" or "tare-err-wrists" yet. (Opps, I just heard one.)

I’m sure there will be some moments. I wait with bated breath.

[Elrathin]

He hasn't talked Iraq yet, maybe saving that till last.


Last I heard he wasn't going to talk a lot about Iraq so maybe at the end or not at all.

[Cobra]

What that's bullshit. Iraq his what his people are worried about, iraq is what we want to hear a solution too. He should include it if he doesn't.

I agree with Wonder Cows assesment so far.

now some terror stuff, terrorists terrorists.

[wonder cow]

now some terror stuff, terrorists terrorists.

Boo! Boo! Boo!

"Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself". FDR

"Only Thing We Have to Fear is beer on a shelf". BDF

[Cobra]

He's talking Iraq now, that's good.

This speech as been same ol, same ol, nothing we didn't already know as far as I can tell.

[BoogyMan]

He also spoke again tonight of an amnesty that he wont call an amnesty. Gads.

[Cobra]

The guest worker program, I like the idea except those guest aren't really guests and prolly won’t go back on their own.

[Stoner]

Well I have to say I am very impressed with his speech. This is actually one of the best speeches I've seen him give. Tonight he was very relaxed and calm.

[wonder cow]

Tonight he was very relaxed and calm.

I agree.

No big fireworks tonight.

Pretty much stay the course in Iraq.

[NortheastCynic]

Well, for the first time I'm absolutely floored by Bush's speach. That was, without a doubt, the worst SOTU speach I can remember. We're balancing the budget, not raising taxes, and we're giving millions of dollars to Africans with AIDS...Okay. Then we've got woodchips, grass, stay the course+95,000 in Iraq...Oy.

-NC

[ECW]

"Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself". FDR

"Only Thing We Have to Fear is beer on a shelf". BDF

"I once got some beer from an elf." GWB

[Drocket]

Bush did a reasonably decent job giving tonight's speech - he should, seeing as he's essentially given the EXACT same speech for the past 4 years. The standard calls for bipartisanship which he'll forget tomorrow when he accuses the 'Democrat party' of helping terrorists, some random domestic policy initiatives that sorta sound good but he won't follow through with, magically balance the budget while giving massive tax breaks to corporations and the ultra wealthy, stay the course, don't let the terrorist wins. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Next year they should give Bush a break and let him deliver his SOTU address via a video tape of this year's address.

[ECW]

Well I have to say I am very impressed with his speech.Â*Â*This is actually one of the best speeches I've seen him give.Â*Â*Tonight he was very relaxed and calm.


I have to agree. That's not saying much for Chimpy but usually his speeches are strident and stiff but this one wasn't bad. There was a real show of class with his introductory remarks to Speaker Pelosi and the references to her father. It almost made me want to stop calling him Chimpy. Almost.

I found it hysterical that he spoke to Democratic issues during most of the speech until he got to Iraq and then it was Stay The Course. His call to balance the budget was pretty funny coming from a guy that never vetoed one Republican budget bill in his life. Those things were so full of pork that pigs everywhere went home squealing and most of it came from GOP earmarks from Bush's allies that benefitted GOP concerns. NOW he wants to balance the budget? Yeah. OK. Lucky for him that's what the Democrats will be doing and what they promised to do because the GOP can no longer be trusted with the taxpayer's money.

Secret earmarks that he complained about were the hallmark of the GOP power play in the last few Congresses especially in the DO NOTHING Congress. This Democratic House already banned them by making them totally open and visible to everyone. That ought to cut down on most of them.

Taking on the challenge of saving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security was tried in the DO NOTHING Congress and even they couldn't get behind the Drive To Privatize that he really wants. I can see room for an independent commission to give recommendations on the three programs as long as it is completely bipartisan. Fixes need to be made but the programs need repairs, not privatizing.

I chuckled at his call to better fund NCLB. He's the dorkwad that recommended the cut in the funding in the second year. Like we forgot he's the one who screwed the pooch on his own program and now he wants the Democrats to fix it. But then, education was always a good issue for Democrats because we always knew that cutting funding just screws things up more. Let's address the issue of unfunded mandates while we are at it. It was part of the Contract On America that the GOP lied about doing something about but never did.

His health care proposal merits looking at. As long as it isn't weighed totally in favor of Health Savings Accounts, it may have a chance.

I really got a charge out of the fact that it will be the Democrats that fix the Immigration issue that his own party could not deal with. Again, that's what happens when Republicans dip their stick into a Democratic issue.

I got the biggest chuckle at a Texas Oil Man proposing ways to cut energy/oil consumption. What? Did Al Gore send George a copy of An Inconvenient Truth for Christmas? If he's serious about this, it's good news. There are billions to be made in expanding technology for alternative fuels. I'm glad he's woken up to that fact.

The bitch and piss comment about selecting judges who should then get an up or down vote ignores recent Congressional history. You only hear this kind of whining from Republicans when it looks like their favored sons won't get their lifetime appointments. I seem to remember dozens of judges that Bill Clinton appointed that never even got hearings from a Republican led Congress. What goes around comes around.

His terrorist comments were pretty lame. He's had years to do something about protecting America and has come up short almost everytime. It took THIS Congress to pass the 9/11 Commission recommendations, not the DO NOTHINGS. It took THIS Congress to keep the terrorist threat from coming in our backdoor that was left wide open by the previous two Congresses. Please.

The extremists he is so worried about would rather kill each other and only kill Americans because we are there in Iraq. The Iraqi government doesn't have the stones to stop the terrorists in their own house and we are expected to do what they cannot? I don't think so. Bush refuses to see that the military option will no longer work and that a political option is our best bet. He won't go down that road because he cannot control the political option the way he can control the military one. This is a non-starter.

The sectarian violence began long before the Mosque was destroyed by Sunni insurgents. Two years ago, in fact. It's taken him this long to comprehend what a lot of us knew back then. It's time to leave. His call for help from the Saudis and Jordanians is too little, too late.

The best part of this speech was Bush's call for 92,000 more permanent troops in the Army and the Marine Corps. Democrats made the EXACT SAME CALL three years ago and the Republicans, at the direction of the president, rebuffed the effort saying it wasn't needed. Funny how smart he's became in the last three years. He's seeing things now that we saw three years ago. Welcome on board.

I did like the feel-good recognition of the four citizens but that was just some due credit.

I did notice one glaring omission, one thing that was not said but that should have been one of the most important things that needed to be said. It wasn't said because the less said about this issue by George Bush the better. Mentioning it merely reminds people what a total incompetent he is. Or maybe he didn't mention it because he really doesn't give a damn, like many people allege.

Not one word was said about rebuilding New Orleans.