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01/29/2003 Archived Entry: "SOTU"

STEVE'S THOUGHTS ON THE SOTU: After reflecting on it for a while, I've decided to give Dubya's State of the Union Address a B-. Not as stirring as some of his earlier speeches but I think that was the point.

Domestic: Here I give Dubya a C because of the spending spree he's promised the American people. Unlike Reagan, Dubya has a Republican controlled Congress which means he doesn't have to spend in order to get his tax cuts passed and yet he decided to fall off the fiscal restraint bandwagon and shovel big money into medicare reform, drugs for AIDS victims across the world (State of the World Union?), hydrogen powered cars and the like. Disappointing was that he made no mention that I remember of reforming Social Security, one of the priorities he has to undertake if his domestic agenda is to be judged favourably by history. More positively, he spoke out against partial birth abortion which even a nominally pro-choice person like me finds to be a completely repulsive thing.

Foreign: As expected the foreign aspect of his speech pretty well dealt with Iraq. Unfortunately there wasn't much new there. We already knew about the mobile WMD labs and the only really new tidbit of information was the name of the al-Qaida cat from Jordan that intelligence sources say spent time in Iraq after September 11. That said, he did make an effective case -- at least in my mind -- about the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein and why military action was necessary. One touch I particularly liked was his mentioning Iran and it's unfortunate population. I give this side of his speech, which completely overshadowed the domestic agenda by its sheer weight an A-.

Overall: No memorable lines though it was nice to hear him use the word evil. If the glove fits...

Lines of the night: "Free people will set the course of history." and "The course of this nation does not depend on the decision of others." Essentially extended middle fingers to the UN and the Axis of Weasels.

Good speech overall though I thought it was deficient in some regards.