Froomkin asks Is Anyone Listening? and has some great little bits from the press about tonight's
"Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: 'Tonight's State of the Union address by President Bush had its origins in a conversation between the president and his small crew of speechwriters in late spring or early summer last year. As the speechwriters tell it, Bush called them into the Oval Office and told them he was interested in giving a speech about his governing philosophy."And America wonders aloud, "wait, he has a governing philosophy? Or any philosophy beyond "blessed are the rich?"
I think this next one is most accurate:
James Carroll writes in his Boston Globe opinion column: "You and everyone you love are riding on a large bus. The bus driver, unskilled and careless, drives too fast, ignores traffic signals, and barrels off the road occasionally. Because the bus is huge, other vehicles swerve to get out of its way, with cars crashing repeatedly. But your driver just keeps going, leaving carnage in his wake. Naturally, you are terrified - but your reactions are irrelevant.
"Finally, the bus itself crashes, killing many. Miraculously, you and your loved ones climb out of the wreckage. A second bus is standing by, and you gratefully scramble aboard. The engine starts up, but then the bus lurches dangerously onto the road, going too fast. Only then do you see that this new bus has the same driver, and he has learned nothing. Welcome to the United States of America. And welcome to the annual State of the Union address."
4 comments:
Anyone else getting tired of shouting, "SIT YOUR ASSES DOWN!!!!" to your television.
Streak- suggestion for drinking game (if I was still hittin' the bottle)- "Terrorists" i.e. "He said terrorists, DRINK!". You'd be on the floor pretty early tonight.
Later- BB
Terrorists would be good. Maybe 9-11. Maybe "freedom."
SOTU = meh. Bush still makes me grit my teeth.
Did I watch it? Of course.
How bout that attempted FISA smackdown? It was the only time Bush I heard that he trotted out his bully stick. Kinda felt petulant to me, but then I don't like the man. I thought Pelosi was sucking on a lemon back there, whereas who knows what was going through Cheney's brain.
Pelosi always looks like she is sucking a lemon. I liked the shot of Kennedy napping.
Apparently, there were 70 standing ovations for a 54 minute speech. I wonder if they keeps track of those stats from other speeches. For the most part, the SOTU doesn't mean much to me, as the president has pretty much established what he is going to do at this point. Unlike Clinton, Bush is just not that great of a speaker and it gets boring.
I did like when he said he would veto bills with last minute earmarks that weren't debated by House or Senate. I think a fair amount of appropriations sneak in that way, but it is a little late for him to appear the fiscal conservative. I didn't like he pushed vouchers, which he called Pell Grants for Kids. I don't support vouchers anyway, but they are not something the federal gov't has the power to mandate or control, but at this point, I don't expect him to understand the Constitution.
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