I watched the State of the Union tonight, and count me among those who enjoyed the symbolism and visuals more than the actual words- especially the hug between the soldier’s mother and the Iraqi woman. And the purple-dipped fingers, in solidarity with those who voted in Iraq, were a nice touch as well. MUCH more classy than the purple-heart band-aids at the Republican convention.
My reaction to the speech mirrors my reaction to Bush in general- great job on all the terrorism/foreign policy/national security stuff, but not so much on the social issues. Great that he started by invoking the elections in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and the Palestinian Authority, and even challenged Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. I never thought I’d live to see a Republican president open a SOTU address by praising recent Palestinian elections.
But I don’t buy the Social Security stuff. And that “preamble” to the marriage amendment section quoted by the back-from-hiatus Andrew? “So many of my generation, after a long journey, have come home to family and faith, and are determined to bring up responsible, moral children.” Yea, so long as they don’t turn out gay. So it was funny to hear Bush, in quoting an Iraqi woman, refer to "my husband." (And then, after speech was over, he kissed a man, Joe Lieberman). Bet Jon Stewart has fun with that soundbyte tomorrow.
Overall, not Bush’s best speech, but not his worst either.
Posted by Stephen Silver at February 2, 2005 11:03 PMYeah, the whole social section wasn't too exciting or interesting to me at least. But I think that he threw it in there just to throw the christian base a bone b/c they've (supposively) been grumbling in recent weeks. His support for the FMA (although it's DOA) should hopefully placate that crowd.
As for Social Securtiy--I'll use Jeff Jarvis' response: "I have no idea who's right about Social Security."
The doubling of the NIH budget though could be a good thing as far as I'm concerned though...*grin*
Posted by: jaws at February 2, 2005 11:17 PM