Ladies and Gentelmen, the President...

Originally posted 2-3-2006 and transferred here.

(Disclaimer- I did not actually watch the speeches- professional political speakers have a cadence that drives me apeshit, and Georgie’s accent doesn’t help. Also, my roommate would have skinned me alive. Thank you, thank you, thank you CNN.com for transcripts!)

The thing about the State of the Union address (SOTU, hereafter), is that it’s the President’s opportunity to shine in front of Congress, the media and the people who (theoretically) elected him. For one night, the President stands before us all and tells us of his vision. The SOTU is our board meeting, the President our CEO. We’re looking for a leader, and for what to expect in the future of the company we call the USA. We want a business plan. It’s his opportunity Crow over his accomplishments. A chance to outline bold new initiatives and tell the nation that everything’s on track and looking swell.

Well, Georgie, we're glad to know we're on track and looking swell, so one out of three ain’t bad, right? Right?

Hmmm, where to start?

(As we go along, I will be periodically calling “Bush-it.” Thanks to the NY Times, Factcheck.org, CNN.com, and the Democratic response for helping me out on this one- I knew he couldn’t lie, but boy do politicians like to stretch the truth!)

The coin toss is in, so we start with Georgie’s Accomplishments.
(And, yeah, I use that term loosely.)

Throughout his speech, Georgie cites the spread of democracy in the world like he did it himself. He talks about Iraq and Afghanistan and here’s my first “Bush-it” of the evening. In the same speech (the same paragraph, even), he talks about the 122 democracies on this earth and the elections in Iraq and Afghanistan like that qualifies them to be on the list. Later on in the SOTU he goes on to talk about Iraq’s progress on the path to democracy like it’s not there. So is it, or isn’t it?
“In less than three years, [Iraq] has gone from dictatorship, to liberation, to sovereignty, to a constitution, to national elections.” I’ll give him the dictatorship and the elections, but an occupied country is hardly what I’d call liberated or sovereign, and they’re already quibbling about amendments to said constitution. By most definitions, including Georgie’s, this is no where near to being a viable democracy. Not by a long shot. “[T]he rule of law, protection of minorities, and strong, accountable institutions that last longer than a single vote,” is how Georgie puts it. If we pull out today, how long would rule of law last? How would minorities be protected? Georgie says we’re winning; I wanna know just who’s keeping score here?
And just because he did, let’s bring up Palestine. (I know, I know, it’s not a Bush accomplishment, per se, but these days Georgie’s calling every middle-eastern election a triumph of American-led democratization.) In a democratic election, by just about everyone’s standards, Hamas swept the board. Georgie says, “now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace.” So an independent, democratically-elected, government has to play by our rules or…, what? What exactly are we going to do if they don’t renounce terrorism, if they don’t disarm? Now that they’re in power, what are the odds that they will roll over and play nice with the Israelis?
Ug! Moving on…
Domestic accomplishments: After all, this is the State of OUR Union. It would be nice if we mentioned our own country one or twice. This should go faster; it’s mostly about the numbers.
We created 4.6 million new jobs in the last two and a half years. OK, I’ll give him his 4.6 million, “raise” him the 2.6 lost during his first two and an half years, and call on “Bush-it” ‘cause a net gain of only 2 mil over his entire presidency ain’t that impressive.
We’ve reduced non-security discretionary spending. But that’s OK; we made it all up with interest on the security spending and the rest of the national budget!
Violent crime is at its lowest levels since the 70’s. Yea! But Georgie can’t take credit for that, the decline started during Clinton’s presidency, we’ve just continued it. Yea us!
The No Child Left Behind Act works. But only if it's properly funded, you dolt, and you haven't and likely won’t. Nor will you let anyone with an alternate plan give that a shot. Your way or the highway.
And I’m gonna call a huge “Bush-it” on Georgie’s claims that his surveillance programs have stopped terrorist plots, if only because it can’t be verified. Why you may ask; because verifying it would be a breach of national security. (Catch-22, anyone?) And while he did notify “some” members of Congress about it, exactly who they were and what they were told is so far up in the air, anyone who wants to verify it will need oxygen. And on a non-SOTU tangent, if FISA (the judge’s panel that grants national sec. wiretaps) was rubberstamping all requests that were put to it, why go around it at all? I know everyone’s hit this point, but apparently not hard enough ‘cause there’s still no answer.
There was more, but I’m too tired, so we’re moving on again.

Georgie’s Bold New Initiatives (some more borrowed and recycled than others)

I’m going to call “Bush-it” on these entire sections on general principle. It’s all fine and dandy to say you’re going to do something and then blame Congressional Democrats if you can’t pull it off. While I have high hopes for Bush’s initiatives: increase the numbers of math and science teachers, balance the budget, halve the deficit, reform social security, and most especially the Advanced Energy Initiative, (About damn time, too, US dependency on oil has increased since Georgie took office, and even more of it is imported. (60% now as opposed to 53% in Slick Willie’s last term.)) but where the hell is he gonna get the money? He proposes to cut some 140 programs that aren’t working in the hopes he can funnel that into these initiatives. (I don't buy it, does he really expect Congress to sit by and let their little pork projects fall by the wayside?) He also claims that he will make his tax cuts permanent, and they will benefit the common man. (Not going there, too damn easy.)
Even in my mathematically challenged little world, a ballooning budget plus tax cuts does not equal a halved deficit by 2009. Especially since we added to the deficit this year (and last year, and the year before that, but really, who’s counting? Oh, yeah, I am.).

And here’s where I laud the Democratic response, the party chose a guy to speak who actually managed a bi-partisan effort to balance Virginia’s budget and expand the number and quality of accredited schools. Bush couldn’t manage that even while he was Governor of Texas. (Yes, TX and VA are very different states and I know that- lemme alone, I’m ranting.) He also called “Bush-it” on the fact that the teaching initiatives and energy programs have long been staples of the Democratic canon. Hmmm, I thought those sections sounded awfully familiar....

However, I was touched that Bush mentioned making the Ryan White Act permanent, so kudos to you, but again- the funding?

I had only one WTF ?!? moment reading the entire speech. Georgie states during his health care rant, “[a]nd because lawsuits are driving many good doctors out of practice- leaving women in nearly 1,500 American counties without a single OB-GYN- I ask the Congress to pass medical liability reform this year.” Huh? How the heck do you draw that line from “a” to “q”? I’m still looking for the numbers on that one…. Anyone? Bueller? Where did White House research get this???

Overall I was highly disappointed in the SOTU, but not for the reasons you might be thinking. Yes, we see Congress bouncing up and down and clapping at all of the pre-arranged intervals. We see the obligatory (and oft-times completly random) guests scattered in the gallery. Yes, Georgie’s logic and accounting leave a bit to be desired, but they’re known quantities, well known- that’s my big problem here. Aside from the energy initiative, part of the teaching/education initiative and the Ryan White Act, there was nothing new in this speech I haven’t heard a thousand times. One of the Slate.com authors likened the SOTU address to a cut and paste of all the speeches he's done in the last year. I expect a little more in the way of innovation in the SOTU address, it's the biggest national address of the year! If you don't have anything new to add, don't add anything at all, the speech is too damn long to begin with. And I am really, REALLY sick of parts of it.

Yes, 9-11 was a tragedy and it did change the course of our nation, but maybe it’s time to find a new place from which to draw our strength. Pain and anger can’t be sustained indefinitely, we have to heal. We can’t wallow and keep picking at these scars until we bleed again. President Bush, please, we need to move on. We’re in Iraq; we won’t leave until we can safely. We’re watching Iran, we’re watching Syria, and we’re being vigilant. We are still in danger, but we remember 9-11 just find on our own, stop dragging it into all of your speeches.
Please stop dragging out dead Marines. You hide the flag-draped coffins so we won’t know the raw numbers of the dead, but every time you need to pull the heartstrings of the public, you drag out the name of a dead soldier. You cite his grieving (but proud) family, quote a few lines from a harried (but proud) letter from the soldier in question, and say what a tragedy it would be if they died in vain. (With waving flags and pretty pictures of the fallen hero, wherever possible.) It was effective the first couple of times you did it, now it’s exploitation.
I’m too tired right now to go into the endless nattering on Patriot Act, immigration, “human cloning in all its forms,” and “compassion” overseas. Perhaps at a later time, after all, I’m sure you’ll go over it all again, and again, and again, just like you always do.

Mr. Bush, you said something in your speech that kinda stuck with me. “Before history is written down in books, it is written in courage.” Your approval ratings are down, some of your supporters are wavering, some of your supporters are being indicted for fraud, laundering, and general corrupt acts, and more and more people are wondering why so many decisions are being made behind closed doors, without any oversight. Do you have the courage to try something truly new? To cut the budget where it can be afforded? Cutting troops in a time of war is counter-productive, especially since the high-tech (and really expensive) equipment that’s supposed to compensate for the loss is untested, or not working at all. As for Medicaid- when I see kiosks in every Wal-Mart, grocery store, and drug store promising to “explain your options,” I’m thinking that maybe the program’s a little too complex. Come tax time, I don’t see so many offers of help, and everyone does taxes. And would it kill you to admit you want to get rid of Democratic “activist judges” and replace them with your own?

Your new initiatives are hardly new, and likely not even sustainable if you can get them off the ground to begin with.
Your accomplishments aren't nearly as black and white as you'd like them to be, and you still have a long way to go on most of them.
And I don't care what kind of spin you're dealing, things aren't as on track and as swell as you'd like us to believe. So a final "Bush-it" on you.

Guess we're at 0-3, then. Pity, it promised to be such a nice game.

*If you want to Google anything here (and I reccommend you do- there's plenty out there), there’s a search bar at the top of the page. If you can prove me wrong, please do, I’ll post any verifiable corrections.