Not Bad

I just finished watching the President’s State of the Union Address. I’m certainly not a Bush fan, but I have to admit that it was pretty good. I don’t think I’ve actually watched the State of the Union in the last few years, but I’ve seen several of Bush’s other speeches, and I think this was the best showing I’ve seen from him

My personal Top 10 highlights from the speech (in order of occurrence):

1. I loved how Congress members stood to applaud Bush’s proposal to cut earmarks in half by the end of the current Congressional session as if they weren’t the ones placing the earmarks on legislation in the first place. Gotta love politicians.

2. Proposal to reduce gasoline use in the United States by 20% in the next 10 years, which, he argues, will result in a cut of our total imports by ¾ of the amount that we import from the Middle East.

3. Bush has been pushing this guest worker program for the last year. I don’t really know much about immigration, but sounds like it could potentially be a good program. It very well might not be, but I think it’s an interesting enough idea to be debated in Congress.

4. His argument to stay the course in Iraq was really quite good. Not to say that he was right, but it was argued well. I’m still torn as to whether it makes more sense for US troops to stay in Iraq or to cut our losses (see entry "An Unlikely Alternative"). His admonition that if the US were to pull out now, it would result in greater turmoil in the region as other actors that are currently deterred by the presence of US forces would enter the region is pretty much the basis of my uncertainty.

5. Civilian military core to supply highly specialized civilians to support military operations when necessary sounds like a good idea to me, assuming it’s completely voluntary, which I assume it would be.

6. Yet another mention of Darfur, but as far as I can see, nothing significant has been done by the administration on this issue in the last 6-12 months, especially since Zoellick left the State Department for Goldman Sachs last summer.

7. I’d be interested to see whether his request for $15 billion to fight malaria in Africa gains any traction. It’s a much needed and long overdue initiative, but it’s also the kind of program that often gets announced in high-profile situations and then is never mentioned again. And that’s not a critique that’s unique to President Bush. It’s a statement that I think applies to politicians in general.

8. Dikembe Mutombo and a shot out to Georgetown: I love it! But the best part was the juxtaposition of him and the little Asian woman seated next to him in the balcony. He was literally twice her size!

9. Wesley Autrey: Milk it for all it’s worth! It was like the guy just won the Heisman or something.

10. What was with the lady molesting the President as he was leaving the House chambers? Did anybody catch that? She had her hand chillin’ on his shoulder or caressing his back for I know a good 5 minutes… on national television. That is definitely not ok!

10: Part Deux. Watching Bush work the crowd as he was leaving the chambers was very impressive. He’s good. Maybe almost as good as Clinton.