Commentary by H.G. Listiak

Wednesday 1/21/2004

Welcome to my world, where President Bush delivered the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress and all of America last night. It's kind of an advantage a sitting president has, as almost traditionally they use the State of the Union Address in the last year of their first term to kick off their campaign to be reelected. If this was the hidden agenda, he cloaked it well. One would have thought that he would have been defensive after months of being bashed by the liberal press and the Democrats after the nomination to oppose him in November. But he didn't play defense. As always, he was in your face with sincerity and on the offensive. He, of course, defended the war on terrorism, lauded our military, and defended the smaller coalition in Iraq, saying we do not need a permission slip to defend America. Domestically, he called upon Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, then rolled on to several economic issues, none of them block busters. He covered probably too many domestic issues, weakening the overall address. In chamber, the Democratic reaction was partisan, with Ted Kennedy scowling through his jowls and Hillary Clinton snide. The Democratic responses came from Nancy Pelosi, who looked like Mary Poppins poorly reading a typical liberal script "we should have gathered the world together and talked our way out of Iraq", with another Bush hater, Tom Daschle, reading his domestic reply script better, but still revealing the sour grapes of his party through his cartoon smile. All in all it was not the most dramatic or inspiring Bush address. It got the job done domestically and reminded us that the war on terrorism is far from over, that we are doing better economically, and that those who oppose him need new material, as I see it ... I'm H.G. Listiak.