Reflecting on the State of the Union

President Bush delivered his 6th State of the Union address to less than exciting crowds. In fact, the grand daddy of long speeches actually seemed some what short this year. The main reason why was the incredible restraint exercised by the audience when it came to applause. It seems that in past speeches 30 minutes to an hour were consumed in such out bursts, that was not the case this year.

The speech itself was strong in style and enjoyed some substance; although you clearly had the sense that the President knew he was not among friends. I almost think, with the rash of candidates using the Web to announce their candidacy, that Bush probably should have used the same vehicle for the State of the Union. Instead of the President having to have to make the long trip to meet with the hostile body, they could have just put a large screen TV on the wall and he could have literally talked down to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. Just think how honest he could be in his assessment of the situation of our country.

Unfortunately, if he had done such, the President could not have the opportunity (like the one in the photo above) in which he and the Speaker arm wrestled before the speech. I believe the Vice President overheard the President saying, "if you win, you get a minimum wage increase; if I win I get to keep my tax cuts" or something like that. I didn't hear who won, but you can see that Speaker Pelosi is clearly cheating.

I will talk more about the substance of the presentation itself in the next week or so, but as far as the speech itself, it was fine and it drew ratings that we hadn't seen for such an Address in years. The American people still seem interested and open minded about the future of our country. Let's hope Congress is too.