Wednesday, February 02, 2005

2005 State of the Union Address

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

The state of our union is...(wait for it)... confident and strong! Whew, that's a relief. According to the Feb. 2 edition of The Note, that marks at least the 10th such pronouncement of strength in a row.

As for the speech, my first impressions are:

1.) Like my comments on the inaugural address, it was long on solidarity (a good thing).

2.) With the exception of Social Security, it was a bit short on subsidiarity, however. Traditionally, the president's submittal to Congress of legislation for their consideration, as part of the SOTU, is given as a laundry list of federal intiatives, usually at odds with the idea of subsidiarity. For as good a speech as it was, President Bush could have kicked things up a notch by making a moral case (again, but stronger) for an "ownership society." Subsidiarity and the ownership society go hand in hand. Putting his agenda in these terms would have made it easier to go beyond Congress and take the message to the American people directly. I must admit, however, that it is not clear whether this would make any difference in what will eventually become law. Still, it would have made a good speech even better.

For anybody who doesn't think Iraq has been worth it, here is a rebuttal from tonight. Those Americans who say they didn't get misty-eyed watching that scene are probably lying.

Re the Democrat response, it sounded like Reid and Pelosi swallowed whole the latest report from Carville, et al., at Democracy Corps (cap tip: RCP), including its flaws, something about which I may blog at a later date. Or not.

God bless America.

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