Have you seen the Center for American Progress 'Talking Points' webpage yet? It is excellent - here is today's (and they have archived all the others - plus they offer each day's talking points in a handy printable form so you can carry it with you easily)
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=83323Bush Invokes Progressive Icons to Sell Right-Wing AgendaFebruary 3, 2005
President Bush attempted a grand intellectual hijacking in last night's State of the Union speech as he invoked the likes of FDR, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and even Bill Clinton to sell his Social Security privatization plan and conjured up the idealism of JFK and Woodrow Wilson to defend the war in Iraq. But the president's embrace of great progressive leaders of the past can not cover up his administration's mismanagement and ideological agenda in the present.
• President Bush quotes FDR but fails to honor his vision. Perhaps Bush should recall another quote from FDR's second inaugural address before trying to wrap himself in his ideas: "Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men."
• Don't be fooled by the president's rhetoric – he's selling an ideological and political agenda, not genuine progressive values. If the president was above board about strengthening and saving Social Security, he would admit Social Security is not going bankrupt and could be solidified for years if he simply repealed his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. He would admit that his plan will cost $2 trillion to finance – debt that will wipe out any potential gains from private accounts. And he would concede that projections for 6 to 7 percent growth in private accounts would naturally mean sufficient economic growth overall to keep Social Security fully solvent.
• President Bush talks of spreading "freedom" and "democracy" yet does nothing to live up to these ideals. If you're going to invoke the ideals of Wilson and JFK you need to live up to them. President Bush has done nothing to confront undemocratic regimes in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Russia and other nations. No one in his administration has ever been held accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib. The administration has done almost nothing to stop the genocide in Sudan. Spreading freedom and ending tyranny will require a lot more than nice speeches.
Center for American Progress home page – link to talking points on left:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/c.biJRJ8OVF/b.8473/
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