The Battle Of Evermore

Stuff happened and that meant I didn't get around to posting more on Bush's SOTUS address as quickly as I would have liked. Ah well, ce la vie.

I'm sure no-one sufferred from the lack. There are plenty of pundits writing on the subject after all. The Moderate Voice has a good round-up of some of them as well as Joe's own thoughts. The Washington Post has an analysis which is pretty much the middle ground of the professional pundits. It's also got a handy little word count chart which in itself is revealing. Glenn Greenwald is, as always, thoughtful and highly readable as he takes Bush to task on surveillance. Notice Bush didn't mention warrants once? The administration knows it's on shaky ground and is tying itself in knots to spin it's defense. Others notice that the foreign policy section of the speech had a decidely belligerent tone of "manifest destiny" which suggested that America will, following the Bush Doctrine, effectively be "at war" forevermore.

Certainly the speech followed Karl Rove's blueprint for the coming political campaign for senatorial seats. Rove said that the GOP would fight the 2006 elections on national security spin and sure enough, George obliged with a hustings speech. Knowing that many people only listen to the first ten minutes or so, he stuck all the fear-mongering right up front. But there was a big hint in the speech for opposition campaigners too - not a single mention of lobbying reform or corruption. The absence shows that corruption and graft is still where the GOP is weakest and where the administration is vulnerable too - the White House and Bush personally get more than their fair share of lobbyists' money. 10% of all lobbying earnings wings it's way to ex-staffers and Bush's campaigns have benefitted to the tune of at least $1.8 million from direct lobbyist contributions.

There was plenty more left out of the SOTUS address too. No big ticket agenda - simply big ticket rhetoric without plans or a budget to match.

By refusing to acknowledge the fundamental squeeze that has left one in six middle-class Americans without health insurance, record numbers applying for bankruptcy, and a significant percentage dipping into retirement security to send their children to college, the President makes it impossible to talk about the comprehensive solutions required to restore faith in the American Dream.

...The President’s address was a speech around the margins. It contained a proposal to expand math and science education without addressing the fundamental under-funding of our nations’ public school systems and the skyrocketing cost of higher education, another to create Health Savings Accounts without addressing the true costs of our enormously expensive and inefficient private health care system, and yet another to create a guest worker program for immigrants without acknowledging the impact of the institutionalization of a second-tier workforce has on middle-class workers.

Nowhere is this more evident than on the issue of treating America's "oil addiction". This is being touted as the big new idea but those with longer memories than the average mainstream pundit will recall the idea was first advanced last April. Since then not a single company has announced plans to build a nuclear plant, mainly because government "risk insurance" for such ventures has failed to materialize in a meaningful way. The motor companies are still years behind the curve on fuel efficient hybrids and a working hydrogen-powered car is no nearer fruition. The oil companies are sucking up record profits but not planning new refineries. Neither Bush's friends in Saudi Arabia nor GOP hacks who suck at the oil pump for contributions are happy, it seems.

Knight Ridder reports:

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

Bush didn't mean any of his speech literally except the parts about stifling dissent and planning for eternal war. Those are the things that are most likely to keep the GOP in power.