SOTU: And so it begins! I'm going to give you real-time instacomments followed by a general wrap-up at the end, all in one blog. Are you ready?!?
9:00 p.m. - We're going with NBC. Your mileage may vary.
9:02 p.m. - John Roberts in the house! Sam Alito in the house!
9:04 p.m. - Laura Bush's seating buddies seem to be a bit contrived. I can't wait for the overblown introductions!
9:05 p.m. - I think Alito is nerdier than me. I have yet to ponder the full implications of this.
9:07 p.m. - Brian Williams, NBC Anchor, makes the obvious points about the State of the Union being the president's bully pulpit. Woodrow Wilson, you genius!
9:10 p.m. - When Frist walks down the aisle with Bush, I wonder: how many of his fellow senators is he mis-diagnosing at first blush?
9:11 p.m. - All hail Caesar! And the speech is on.
9:13 p.m. - Coretta Scott King remembered. Respect.
9:15 p.m. - "Our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger." Is this a dig at the leftwing? Oh, and the union is strong. Just thought you'd want to know.
9:16 p.m. - Isolation ends in danger and decline. The U.S. must continue to lead. Okay, that's vague, give me more specifics, buddy.
9:17 p.m. - 9/11, terror, democracy, freedom. This seems somewhat familiar, and the polite applause gives me the impression the chamber feels the same way. Syria! Zimbabwe! Burma! Iran! You too will be free! Okay, still a little vague.
9:18 p.m. - Radical Islam must be taken seriously. Okay, getting better. He wants to talk about Iran, I think. Maybe I just want him to.
9:19 p.m. - Isolationism rebuked again. "There is no peace in retreat." Standing ovation for anti-evil comments. Wait! Charlie Rangel! You are not standing!
9:21 p.m. - Afghanistan and Iraq are coming along nicely. Old resentments are being healed and the insurgency is being marginalized. Striking terrorist targets while training the Iraqi Army. "Cause of freedom" line draws pseudo-applause from Republican side.
9:23 p.m. - "We are winning." Democrats sit on their hands.
9:24 p.m. - Decisions will be made by military commanders, not by politicians in D.C. Republican side applauds, Democratic side sits.
9:25 p.m. - Second-guessing is not a strategy! Second-guessing Democrats do not seem amused. Is John Kerry falling asleep?
9:26 p.m. - Quotes from letter written by USMC Staff Sgt. Family is in the audience. I've got no beef with this and much respect for the USMC.
9:28 p.m. - Every time Bush says a fairly obvious applause line, like "our soldiers are making sacrifices," my brother says "apple pie! free beer!" in a sarcastic voice. Get to the specifics, Bushie.
9:29 p.m. - Hamas! We're calling you out! Saudi Arabia, you're doing just fine.
9:34 p.m. - Iran time! No nukes for you, Iran. "Our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran." Isolationism, by the way, is no good. We're taking 'unprecedented steps' to halt the spread of diseases and raise the educational standards of third-world nations.
9:36 p.m. - Reauthorize the Patriot Act. Democrats are not excited by this. Ah, now we're talking 'connect the dots' and 'international communications.' Federal courts have approved his authority and 'appropriate members of Congress' have been informed. He slips into Texas twang when talking about defending the Republic! He must really mean it. Hilary Clinton was not clapping, my friends. She was shaking her head. Brother: "Because she's evil!"
9:37 p.m. - Isolationism is still bad.
9:39 p.m. - Our economy is way better than Japan's or the European Union's. "The envy of the world." But let's not get sloppy! China and India are all over this! I think I wrote this part. Protectionism and socialism rebuked. Immigration is good. Oooo... 'immigration good' turned into an applause line.
9:42 p.m. - Tax cuts are good. "America needs more than a temporary expansion." He urges the Congress to 'act responsibly' and make the tax cuts permanent. Remember how the deal in 2001 was that the tax cuts were responsible because they would sunset and therefore not affect the deficit? Well, forget all that!
9:43 p.m. - WTF? Did he just ask for the line-item veto to confront pork? McCain is a standing ovation of one.
9:44 p.m. - Bush turns 60 and makes more than one lame joke about it. But he segues into talk about entitlement spending. DEMOCRATS REVOLT at mention of privatization of Social Security! "Yet the rising cost of entitlements is not a problem that's going away!" So let's create a commission to study Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I think the Democrats just pissed him off.
9:45 p.m. - Free trade is good, because American workers are the best in the world. Oh, the crafty segue into immigration and guest workers. Let's see how this goes. NBC shows Homeland Security guy a bit too much for my liking.
9:47 p.m. - Hypes Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Frivolous lawsuits are no good. NBC shows Frist because they're tools.
9:48 p.m. - "America is addicted to oil." Umm... keep talking...
9:50 p.m. - Coal, wind, solar, and, ahem, 'nukular.' Research will be increased in alternate sources. We'll be ready by 2025. No rush or anything.
9:52 p.m. - More funding for "America's most creative minds." Ah, a tax credit is being made permanent, too. Republicans clap for a moment, until they realize that science is anti-God. Wow! What a cheap shot! I apologize.
9:53 p.m. - "American Competitiveness" thingie was clearly supposed to be an applause line. Oops!
9:55 p.m. - Crime down, drug use down, abortions down. A rising generation is all about personal responsibility! BUT ACTIVIST COURTS ARE REDEFINING MARRIAGE!
9:57 p.m. - Roberts and Alito are my boys! They don't legislate from the bench.
9:58 p.m. - Human cloning, embyro-selling, and human-animal mixing are all no good. Some Democrats are not applauding. I think Hilary Clinton's plan to create a wooly mammoth man have just become a little more obvious, don't you? Boudicca says I missed the far better and more obvious joke here, since she herself has been working on creating THUNDERCATS!
10:00 p.m. - Laura Bush likes kids. In other news, I think beagle puppies are cute.
10:02 p.m. - Apparently we've spent $85 billion on Hurricane Katrina relief so far. Bush morphs into LBJ. HIV/AIDS is bad. Vows to bring us to a day when "there are no new infections in America."
10:03 p.m. - I'm feeling peroration here. Lincoln, MLK, Cold War. "May God Bless America."
Preliminary thoughts: Eh. It had some good and bad. After being so excited by the SOTU in 2002 and 2003, they've been letdowns since. Too much rhetoric and precious little specifics. The Democratic response was given by the Daily Show's own Rob Corddry, or rather his look-a-like, the governor of Virginia. Double-yawn. I leave it to you, commenters!
9:00 p.m. - We're going with NBC. Your mileage may vary.
9:02 p.m. - John Roberts in the house! Sam Alito in the house!
9:04 p.m. - Laura Bush's seating buddies seem to be a bit contrived. I can't wait for the overblown introductions!
9:05 p.m. - I think Alito is nerdier than me. I have yet to ponder the full implications of this.
9:07 p.m. - Brian Williams, NBC Anchor, makes the obvious points about the State of the Union being the president's bully pulpit. Woodrow Wilson, you genius!
9:10 p.m. - When Frist walks down the aisle with Bush, I wonder: how many of his fellow senators is he mis-diagnosing at first blush?
9:11 p.m. - All hail Caesar! And the speech is on.
9:13 p.m. - Coretta Scott King remembered. Respect.
9:15 p.m. - "Our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger." Is this a dig at the leftwing? Oh, and the union is strong. Just thought you'd want to know.
9:16 p.m. - Isolation ends in danger and decline. The U.S. must continue to lead. Okay, that's vague, give me more specifics, buddy.
9:17 p.m. - 9/11, terror, democracy, freedom. This seems somewhat familiar, and the polite applause gives me the impression the chamber feels the same way. Syria! Zimbabwe! Burma! Iran! You too will be free! Okay, still a little vague.
9:18 p.m. - Radical Islam must be taken seriously. Okay, getting better. He wants to talk about Iran, I think. Maybe I just want him to.
9:19 p.m. - Isolationism rebuked again. "There is no peace in retreat." Standing ovation for anti-evil comments. Wait! Charlie Rangel! You are not standing!
9:21 p.m. - Afghanistan and Iraq are coming along nicely. Old resentments are being healed and the insurgency is being marginalized. Striking terrorist targets while training the Iraqi Army. "Cause of freedom" line draws pseudo-applause from Republican side.
9:23 p.m. - "We are winning." Democrats sit on their hands.
9:24 p.m. - Decisions will be made by military commanders, not by politicians in D.C. Republican side applauds, Democratic side sits.
9:25 p.m. - Second-guessing is not a strategy! Second-guessing Democrats do not seem amused. Is John Kerry falling asleep?
9:26 p.m. - Quotes from letter written by USMC Staff Sgt. Family is in the audience. I've got no beef with this and much respect for the USMC.
9:28 p.m. - Every time Bush says a fairly obvious applause line, like "our soldiers are making sacrifices," my brother says "apple pie! free beer!" in a sarcastic voice. Get to the specifics, Bushie.
9:29 p.m. - Hamas! We're calling you out! Saudi Arabia, you're doing just fine.
9:34 p.m. - Iran time! No nukes for you, Iran. "Our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran." Isolationism, by the way, is no good. We're taking 'unprecedented steps' to halt the spread of diseases and raise the educational standards of third-world nations.
9:36 p.m. - Reauthorize the Patriot Act. Democrats are not excited by this. Ah, now we're talking 'connect the dots' and 'international communications.' Federal courts have approved his authority and 'appropriate members of Congress' have been informed. He slips into Texas twang when talking about defending the Republic! He must really mean it. Hilary Clinton was not clapping, my friends. She was shaking her head. Brother: "Because she's evil!"
9:37 p.m. - Isolationism is still bad.
9:39 p.m. - Our economy is way better than Japan's or the European Union's. "The envy of the world." But let's not get sloppy! China and India are all over this! I think I wrote this part. Protectionism and socialism rebuked. Immigration is good. Oooo... 'immigration good' turned into an applause line.
9:42 p.m. - Tax cuts are good. "America needs more than a temporary expansion." He urges the Congress to 'act responsibly' and make the tax cuts permanent. Remember how the deal in 2001 was that the tax cuts were responsible because they would sunset and therefore not affect the deficit? Well, forget all that!
9:43 p.m. - WTF? Did he just ask for the line-item veto to confront pork? McCain is a standing ovation of one.
9:44 p.m. - Bush turns 60 and makes more than one lame joke about it. But he segues into talk about entitlement spending. DEMOCRATS REVOLT at mention of privatization of Social Security! "Yet the rising cost of entitlements is not a problem that's going away!" So let's create a commission to study Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I think the Democrats just pissed him off.
9:45 p.m. - Free trade is good, because American workers are the best in the world. Oh, the crafty segue into immigration and guest workers. Let's see how this goes. NBC shows Homeland Security guy a bit too much for my liking.
9:47 p.m. - Hypes Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Frivolous lawsuits are no good. NBC shows Frist because they're tools.
9:48 p.m. - "America is addicted to oil." Umm... keep talking...
9:50 p.m. - Coal, wind, solar, and, ahem, 'nukular.' Research will be increased in alternate sources. We'll be ready by 2025. No rush or anything.
9:52 p.m. - More funding for "America's most creative minds." Ah, a tax credit is being made permanent, too. Republicans clap for a moment, until they realize that science is anti-God. Wow! What a cheap shot! I apologize.
9:53 p.m. - "American Competitiveness" thingie was clearly supposed to be an applause line. Oops!
9:55 p.m. - Crime down, drug use down, abortions down. A rising generation is all about personal responsibility! BUT ACTIVIST COURTS ARE REDEFINING MARRIAGE!
9:57 p.m. - Roberts and Alito are my boys! They don't legislate from the bench.
9:58 p.m. - Human cloning, embyro-selling, and human-animal mixing are all no good. Some Democrats are not applauding. I think Hilary Clinton's plan to create a wooly mammoth man have just become a little more obvious, don't you? Boudicca says I missed the far better and more obvious joke here, since she herself has been working on creating THUNDERCATS!
10:00 p.m. - Laura Bush likes kids. In other news, I think beagle puppies are cute.
10:02 p.m. - Apparently we've spent $85 billion on Hurricane Katrina relief so far. Bush morphs into LBJ. HIV/AIDS is bad. Vows to bring us to a day when "there are no new infections in America."
10:03 p.m. - I'm feeling peroration here. Lincoln, MLK, Cold War. "May God Bless America."
Preliminary thoughts: Eh. It had some good and bad. After being so excited by the SOTU in 2002 and 2003, they've been letdowns since. Too much rhetoric and precious little specifics. The Democratic response was given by the Daily Show's own Rob Corddry, or rather his look-a-like, the governor of Virginia. Double-yawn. I leave it to you, commenters!
posted by Joshua @ 8:57 PM
11 Comments:
I obviously devoted too much time to the SOTU last night. Why? I had a dream that Boudicca and I were visiting the Bushes for a post-speech wrapup and I kept trying to interview Dubya. Please tell me this didn't happen to you.
This didn't happen to me.
We visited the Bushes? In my dream, I was running around my apartment trying to catch a mouse. At least it wasn't about Alan Greenspan, since I fell asleep watching the Daily Show's Salute to Greenspan special last night.
Do you think Bush realizes the irony whatsoever of whining about activist judges after the crap they pulled last year with the midnight Schiavo rulings? Like, seriously, that's not too difficult for him to grasp...is it?
Excellent job on the play by play, Tacitean. Entertaining and informative. I almost wish I hadn't watched it and had just read your summary. Have to admit I missed the SOTU in 2002 and 2003 (was in my 'ignorance will make him go away phase.' oops!) so I am interested in what exactly "excited" you during those speeches as opposed to the more recent ones. Sure he didn't give a lot of details about how to go about accomplishing all his wonderful goals but does any president really get into that during their SOTU? Isn't it always more of a vague overview of what they've accomplished and what they hope to accomplish in the future? At least that's the impression I always seem to come away with. Commendable goals but not too much real substance. Here's hoping he can follow through on some of it.
Kelly: Bush may grasp the irony (his speechwriters certainly do) but he also knows that it doesn't matter because A) "Activist Judges" doesn't mean activist judges, but is a code word for any judges who don't rule in line with Bush and his base's views and B) because these days political language barely needs to be consistant in the context of its own paragrpah, let alone in the context of one's position over several years. That's the sweet doublethink for you.
But please, do not be so crude as to point out these so-called inconsistancies, because that, as Mr. Bush reminded us with a wag of the finger at the beginning of his address is not "responsible debate that aims at success."
As for things to be pleased with in the address, I am glad that he finally tied energy independance to national security. His mention of ethanol is pure farm-state pandering, but solar, wind and especially "Nook-yu-lur" power are all good things to push. Furthermore his stated aim of doubling basic science funding is excellent. Whether it happens is another matter, but it is certainly better than he mentioned it than not. The same goes for speaking about math and science education. I realize people will be quick to point out what a mess he has made of education so far, and that he'd just as soon see the NEA dead as bin-laden, but again, better that he at least mention a real problem and pretend to care about a solution than that he ignore it entirely. Of course, that was where his support of science stopped, as he then shifted into luddite gear with some hogswash about respecting life, which translated roughly to "I'd prefer if other countries got way ahead of us in bio-medical research while we hobble research at home with fabricated ethical concerns. (note: there ARE ethical concerns involved with cloning etc, just not the ones he's talking about- and they CERTAINLY do not preclude us from pursuing fruitful avenues of scientific inquiry). He then went on to continue speaking about competitiveness. But, as I've said, there is no longer any expectation of internal consistancy in political speech, so who cares?
Overall:
Pros: Increased basic science funding, emphasis on science/math education, emphasis on energy research, rejection of protectionism/embrace of liberal trade, (I would mention his goals on AIDS, but they are really pointless until he can bring himself to talk about condoms)
Cons: Everything else
Has anyone else noticed (and I was doing it myslef this morning) that we're essentially praising finally vaguely aknowledging commonly understood truths that he's spent the last five years trying to obfuscate? How much of a curve are we willing to grade him on?
No! He's acknowledging the spreading problem of human/animal hybrids using stem cells! He's clearly mixed up an intelligence report with The Island of Dr. Moreau. Go Bush! Now, if he were to be cloned with an animal, what would you most want to see? My vote would be a panda bear - I don't know why...
My vote would be for lemming. I think I do know why.
Um, hello. Texas Longhorn.
Oh, and here's the deal about the human-animal hybrids: POW!
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