State Of The Union: Long On Long, Short On Lofty (Shales)

[Syrinx]

We like a confident president, but we don't like a cocky president, and George W. Bush had too many moments of cockiness last night as he delivered his third State of the Union address to both houses of Congress and the viewing nation. Often the words of the speech were written to sound lofty, but Bush had such a big Christmas-morning grin on his face that they came out sounding like taunts -- taunts to the rest of the world or taunts to Democrats in the hall.

The dividing line between the parties has rarely appeared so graphic. Republicans on one side of the House chamber couldn't scramble to their feet fast enough to give Bush his obligatory standing ovations. He probably would have gotten one if he'd sneezed. Democrats, meanwhile, sat their ground. They rose for some of Bush's sentiments, as when praising America's military forces, but they weren't on their feet when Bush called for making last year's tax cuts permanent.

And the split was even more dramatic when Bush called for renewing his controversial Patriot Act, a piece of emergency legislation that has had the effect of trampling civil rights into mush. In fact, Bush got applause he didn't want when he introduced the subject by saying certain provisions of the Patriot Act would end next year. Yes, some people, presumably Democrats, heartily applauded that.

*snip*

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33872-2004Jan21.html