That Other President
Anyone else see the State of the Union last night?
I found it a very odd speech—not so much because of its content, but because of its delivery. Bush looked and sounded tired. He gave the impression that he would happily—very happily—be somewhere else. It was as if he were thinking, "You know that you're not going to change your mind on Iraq, and I know that you're not going to change your mind on Iraq, but I have to go through the motions, okay?"
The president looked like a man on the verge of giving in.
It was remarkable how much the speech reflected the Democratic takeover of Congress. There's Bush talking about universal health insurance, saying that if individual states have universal health insurance plans, the federal government should help fund them. (Never mind that that, of course, massively contradicts his "plan" to balance the budget.) And Bush also proposed a tax cut so that people wouldn't be taxed on either the value or the cost of their health insurance.
It's a start. But Bush still seems to think that the only people who lack health insurance are "the poor and the sick," which suggests that he underestimates the scope of the problem and the measures needed to address it.
Bush has always been unusually decent on the issue of immigration—I think it comes from his hands-on experience as governor of Texas, and perhaps the fact that his family includes "little brown ones"—and the temporary worker program sounds like a fair compromise on a tough problem.
Unfortunately, the House chamber was so quiet when he mentioned immigration, you could have heard Mark Foley writing a text-message.
So...guess that's not going to happen.
Meanwhile, I'm glad the president is finally talking with some measure of seriousness about energy. But his ideas are scattershot and poorly thought-through. More oil drilling! Reform CAFE standards! Use wood chips to create alternative fuels!
One of the most honest moments of the night came when he spoke of the need for a massive boost in ethanol production, and ABC's camera showed Iowa senator Charles Grassley practically jumping up and down in his chair. Ethanol, of course, has some pretty serious environmental byproducts, and it's hardly the solution to our energy problems; some writers have suggested that it takes more energy to produce ethanol than ethanol generates. Grassley couldn't care less—his corn-growing state just hit paydirt.
Then, finally, came Iraq. And it was pathetic. Bush's language was pleading, anxious. At the same time, it was profoundly dishonest.
With the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of conflict and the course we have followed.
"We find ourselves debating the causes of conflict"? That's a nice way of cloaking the lack of WMDs under the "essential" debates of "a great democracy."
And next, a line that struck me as not just wrong, but actually dangerous.
From the start, America and our allies have protected our people by staying on the offense.
In fact, it could be argued that going on the offense in Iraq has actually made the country (this country) considerably less safe, in the long run. And going to war in Iraq was hardly taking the offense against Al Qaeda, anyway. So it was horrifying to see the rapidity with which members of Congress jumped to their feet to affirm the power of "going on the offense."
People, football analogies are not a good way to deal with terrorism and its origins.
Bush then invoked terrorist attacks that we supposedly prevented...and 9/11, of course.
Just five years after that day, the president's reference to it now sound hollow, powerless, and—sadly—cliched. He has gone to that well too many times for policies that had nothing to do with it. And I don't know all the details of the attacks we may have prevented, but I no longer automatically believe Bush when he discloses them. He has cried wolf too often.
Bush continues to insult our intelligence by turning terrorists into stick figures.
To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come and kill us.What every terrorist fears most is human freedom -- societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to their own conscience and live by their hopes instead of their resentments.
Yes, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred. Unfortunately, in Iraq, we are creating them. And terrorists are not all driven by a blind hatred of American freedom. Sometimes, as in the case of Osama bin Laden, it's just American
policies that they hate.
The president's new rationale for Iraq: We can't quit now, because if we did, it will become a hotbed for terrorism. So depressing. We have essentially started a war for the wrong reason...and now we must "win" it to stave off the horrific consequences arising from our start of it.
However, I did like one thing about the speech: the shout-out to Wesley Autrey, better known as the subway guy. That man is a true hero, and he seems like a super-nice guy as well. He deserves all the attention that has come his way.
A few thoughts on the Democratic responses. Jim Webb was so serious that I can't imagine anyone watched, but I thought he was actually pretty good. And he invoked my pet issue, the growing inequity of wealth in America, noting that when he graduated from college, the average ceo-to-employee pay ratio was 20:1, and today it is 400:1.
As Webb puts it, the average American worker now has to work for over a year to earn what the average CEO makes in a day. And that's just wrong.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both appeared on ABC and were interviewed by a (sort of lame) Charles Gibson. Hillary was terrific—articulate, smart, knew the issues incredibly well, looked good. Obama was also strong, although not as fluent in policy stuff as Hillary was. (She really is an extremely smart woman.)
But all three Democrats seemed more substantive and more serious than did President Bush.
And finally, John McCain also came on and defended the troop surge. I will tell you one thing right now: John McCain is not going to be the country's next president. He sounded awful, he looks old, and he flat-out admitted that the troop surge is going to lead to more American deaths. Stick a fork in him, he's done.
