State of the Union, Pt. II

Time magazine's Jay Carney summed up last night's address thusly-

"The nation George W. Bush described in his final State of the Union address to Congress bore a fairly strong resemblance to the nation as we knew it back in, say, 2003, but it could not be passed off as a vision of the America we see in January 2008. Similarly, the agenda he outlined had a musty whiff to it; it was so full of hardy perennials, of ideas whose time had come and long since gone, that an observer was left wondering if some speechwriter’s assistant mistakenly loaded the wrong text into the teleprompter – with the unexpected result that Bush delivered the whole thing without ever noticing that the words he spoke had been spoken (by him) before, and were oddly detached from both current events and current attitudes."

And that says it all for me. The whole thing was completely detached from reality, other than the tacked-on part at the beginning about economic stimulus. And while it all seemed so phoned in, the President made clear he had no intention of being a lame-duck, as there were subtle indicators he will continue to bully and veto his way to continued relevance.

Finally, the Center For American Progress fact-checked the speech (no easy task against so skilled a liar), and for reference purposes, I am posting links to their posts here...

SOTU: Economy Has Benefited Only The Rich / SOTU: State Of The Economy Is Failing For Americans Who Need It Most / SOTU: Bush Wants To Make His Economic Program Permanent / SOTU: Federal Earmarks Have Exploded Under Bush And GOP-Led Congress / SOTU: Standard Deduction Will Increase Taxes While Leaving Millions Uninsured / SOTU: Health Savings Accounts Offer Americans No Meaningful Savings / SOTU: Bush’s ‘Pell Grants for Kids’ Plan Is Vouchers In Disguise / SOTU: Bush’s Policies Have Catered To Energy Interests / SOTU: Bush Has Repeatedly Blocked Global Climate Efforts / SOTU: Congress Confirmed At Least 40 Of Bush’s Judges In 2007 / SOTU: Office Of Faith-Based Initiatives Has Been Ineffectual, Politicized / SOTU: Bush Has Neglected Hurricane Reconstruction / SOTU: Bush Administration Has Conducted Politically Motivated Immigration Raids / SOTU: Al Qaeda, Taliban Are Regrouping In South Asia, Increasing The Terrorist Threat / SOTU: Bush’s Surge Has Not Worked / SOTU: Bush Is Forced To Withraw Troops From Iraq Because Of Weakened Military / SOTU: Iraqi Security Forces May Not Be Ready For Another Decade / SOTU: Temporary FISA Extension Will Not Put Any Americans In Danger / SOTU: Bush Continues To Seek Warrantless Wiretapping Power Without Any Oversight / SOTU: Bush Has Pushed Aside Action On Democracy And Human Rights / SOTU: Abstinence Policies Hamper AIDS Efforts / SOTU: Veterans Health Care Has Gotten Worse Under Bush