State of the Union

I hope you watched President Bush deliver his State of the Union speech last night. There weren’t many surprises, and (thankfully) no huge new entitlements announced. For me, the most interesting new program announced was the initiative to wean us from our oil addiction. In particular I welcome the support for nuclear power plants, carefully mentioned only after some more politically palatable options (such as zero-emission coal-fired plants). The ethanol initiative I’m much more skeptical about, though I’d be very happy to have my skepticism proved wrong. And I am completetly unconvinced on hydrogen-powered transportation unless it is coupled with some renewable energy source (such as nuclear power).

My reaction right after watching the (FOX) television coverage of the speech was that the most striking thing about the coverage was Hillary Clinton. A comment by John Hinderaker says it better than I could:

From PowerLine:

The most interesting audience shots, I thought, were of Hillary Clinton, and she didn’t come across well. In fact, the phrase “tone deaf” comes to mind. She was completely stone-faced when Bush made his friendly joke about his father’s two favorite people (Bill Clinton and “W” himself) turning 60. I would have thought she’d want to be in on a joke about successive presidents from two families. On the other hand, she smiled rapturously when Bush noted the failure of social security reform, and grinned dismissively while shaking her head slightly when Bush, at the conclusion of his discussion of the NSA intercept program, said “we will not sit back and wait to be hit again.” In sum, Hillary looked anything but presidential.

That moment after President Bush spoke about the NSA intercepts was particularly striking to me. I believe any dispassionate observer would would conclude that Hillary was displaying a smug belief in the superiority of her position (whatever that might be), and completely dismissing President Bush’s well-articulated position. And I think that’s most likely a really stupid move on her part, because I don’t think many Americans believe the President is wrong on this one. I came away with the impression that whatever Hillary’s position is, it doesn’t include surveillance of people in America contacting Al Qaida members overseas — and how dumb (and “tone deaf") is that?

The other striking image, for me, was a brief shot of Senator John Kerry, sitting there in a contemplative pose, with his facial expression exuding that same kind of smug superiority that Hillary was showing. He looks like a guy I went to high school with, who was completely convinced that his own understanding (of everything and anything!) was so far advanced over anyone else’s that there was no need for him to even listen to another view, much less consider it. A very annoying character flaw, and, I think, incredibly dangerous in a President. It gives me chills to think how close we came to electing this clown.

While there was little that was remarkable about President Bush’s speech, it seemed to me to be dead on target; just right for the moment. Daniel Casse nails my reaction — after a riff about the weird Democratic reactions, he said:

From NRO:

...For all these reasons, the SOU has to be considered a success. Even at his most conciliatory, Bush continues to annoy all the right people.

Mr. Casse has it exactly right: President Bush continues to annoy all the right people. Forget the details, as this is truly the important point; the indicator that tells us he is right on target…