Uninspired
Sorry. I'm just calling it like I see it.
At the very end, with President Bush autographing his way up the aisle, he was praised for doing a good job.
"I enjoyed being up there," he answered.
"You looked like you did," the complimenter added.
Yes, you did like hearing the sound of your own voice one more time, didn't you?
This is the first State of the Union I remember in my life that did not call out Americans sitting in the gallery. I've always liked that practice - it emphasizes to us that what's important is not only who our leaders are, and what their visions might be, but what we do as citizens for our country. We didn't see that here.
President Bush just rushed his way through 25 minutes or so of domestic policy so he could spend close to half his speech extolling our adventure in Iraq. And ultimately, what control do we have over the military action in Iraq? None:
In the coming year, we will work with Iraqi leaders as they build on the progress they are making toward political reconciliation. At the local level, Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds are beginning to come together to reclaim their communities and rebuild their lives. Progress in the provinces must be matched by progress in Baghdad. And we are seeing some encouraging signs. The national government is sharing oil revenues with the provinces. The parliament recently passed both a pension law and de-Ba'athification reform. Now they are debating a provincial powers law. The Iraqis still have a distance to travel. But after decades of dictatorship and the pain of sectarian violence, reconciliation is taking place - and the Iraqi people are taking control of their future.
You spend the balance of your speech on the war in Iraq, and all you can say is, "It's up to the Iraqis and the progress they make." That's all there is to it. Not very inspiring.
Not much in the way of lofty speech, just dashing from one part of the speech to another, one policy proposal to the next. Almost like a standardized test that you're running out of time for, and you've just got to give some kind of answer in the hopes that you'll guess right.
But if you can't take my word for it, check out Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard on Fox News. "The president has given three great speeches during his presidency," he said. "And this wasn't one of them."
That's as much post-mortem as I care to offer. See you on the other side.
