State of the Union

Stepping away from the norm, here are some quick observations as I watch the State of the Union address:

• Regardless of who is the President, I get chills every time those doors open and the dude says, "Ladies and gentlemen, the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES." It's not as cool an entrance as Stone Cold Steve Austin's, but it is a close second.
  
• In talking about the war on terrorism early, Bush says “it is a war…and we are winning.” Didn’t he say the exact same thing last year?
• The stand up, sit down pattern trips me out. Hope everyone wore comfortable shoes.
• I found the “feature” on the lieutenant who was killed slightly odd. Singling out one guy is not going to win people over. However, the rehearsed handshakes and gestures were a little much, as was the wink from Bush that just happened to be caught by the camera.
• Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reaction when the President mentioned the US being “hit again” was priceless. The Republican side was whopping it up while HRC was shaking her head slowly, almost laughing. At least she showed some personality.
• Nevermind the stand up, sit down comment: that only applies to the Republican side. I’d say they’ve stood up at least twice as much as the Dems.
• BTW, what a finish to the Georgia Tech/Virginia Tech game. Tie game, GT’s Jeremis Smith tips in the winning basket, only to have it overturned and a foul called on him for going over Deron Washington’s back. Washington hit a free throw to win it for VT. Whew.
• The Dems finally stood up when Bush mentioned Congress voting against a piece of his financial policy last year dealing with Social Security. Now everyone approves when he says “we must work together on this to get this problem solved” and everyone loves it. I wish someone would stand when they aren’t supposed to.
• Hillary didn’t find the baby-boomer joke about former Pres. Bush Sr. and former Pres Clinton. She did not even crack a smile. There should be a HRC cam at this thing, someone look into this.
• UCONN just defeated Pitt by four. Pitt played the Huskies tough tonight, maybe they are for real. We shall see. Creighton and Northern Iowa are in a battle right now too. Wish I had ESPNU to see it.
• Some discussion of the energy problem. I think it is obvious that everyone wants to see a breakthrough on this front, it’s just the funding and speed of the research that is an issue.
• American Competitiveness Initiative huh? Glad I missed being in school for that one, somehow I do not believe “sports” was included in the President’s plan. Margaret Spellings, the Education Secretary is either excited about this or she is thinking about a funny story where her friend test drove a car and put the car in reverse instead of drive and nearly backed the car, herself, and the general manager of the dealership into a parked car behind it.
• I do agree that the American people must not buy into the idea that we are in decline as a nation. Not in a naïve way, but I do believe that being confident as a country and remaining forward thinkers is important.
• Laura Bush is also happy tonight. What do you think the President thinks when his eyes look up and meet her’s? Is he thinking about whether he has to stay in a separate room tonight in the White House? Can’t you just see him trying to get his swerve on with the First Lady tonight? “Did you see me out there hunny? The way I read off that teleprompter but played it off like I was just making it up? See, it’s really an invisible teleprompter, that’s how I roll, ya know? Now let’s get down to bidness…”
• The Coretta Scott King remarks were a nice touch at the outset of the speech, btw. A little too polished, but nice nonetheless. Good job by the speech writer to bring it full-circle with the MLK reference near the end too.
• 51 mins with 61 interruptions for applause. Whew.
• Key issues – the wire taps on suspected terrorists and the recent Supreme Court confirmations. Good analogy on CNN of the White House playing “small ball,” meaning that they are not trying to hit a home run with this speech or his policy in general. The failure of his social security initiatives really seems to have brought him down a bit. Combine this with the national security issues, he is clearly humbled.
• Personal observations: I’m glad to see the President call out his critics and basically tell them to shut up. No matter which side you’re on, it is tiring to hear constant criticism of the White House from either party. That is one of the main reasons people get tired of national politics. I am not sure if the people of Iran will have a response to his speaking to them during the address, but I would love to hear it. From a speaking standpoint, his speech was quite itemized, which makes it easy to follow but dry and boring to listen to. I would love to have seen more passion from President Bush or have seen him step up and take a stand on something. Instead, he simply touched most of his policy areas, focusing safely within his national security image. A little more off-the-cuff comments, especially on the emotional topics. Oh well, we ain’t getting that anytime soon.
• Times like this I really think I should go into politics. Then I remember my political science classes and how heated discussions got and how many hours of sleep I caught up on.
• Ok, back to sports next time I guess. Stand and cheer for the Pan-thers…