Bush's State of the Union Address Tuesday night was an excellent speech for him. While he really didn't unveil anything groundbreakingly new (just reminding us of some of his domestic campaign issues, and taking a hardline stance with Iran), he did present a quality 50-minute speech that sounded good. No one's going to be attacking him on stuttering or mispronouncing words. No, Bush was superb.
I greatly enjoyed hearing about Cindy Sheehan's arrest just minutes before Bush entered the House to give his speech. Of course, she was invited there by Representative Lynne Woolsey, a Democrat from California, to do nothing but cause trouble. Security saw her walking in with a shirt that had an anti-war message on it (and the law strictly prohibits protesting inside of the House of Representatives). Looks like she'll have to wait a little longer until she can be in a room with the President again.
As is usual with State of the Union Addresses, people applaud more than the President speaks. Sometimes its a bipartisan cheer, usually when the President makes a general statement like "Americans are human" or says "I want to thank our troops." Both sides have to cheer for statements like that, otherwise they look utterly ridiculous... then again, this evening one party did end up looking utterly ridiculous, but I'll get to that. So sometimes there is a very partisan cheer. When people enter the House and sit down, the stands are divided in half, GOP on one side and Dems on the other. So it's very obvious when the Republicans agree with what the President is saying. You see an entire side of the room stand and cheer, and the whole thing sort of resembles a botched "wave" at a football game.
Tonight, however, the Democrats did find a chance to stand on their own and cheer... and their reasoning was appalling, disturbing, and down right hilarious. It came at a time when Bush was just beginning his talk about domestic issues (these resided in the second half of his speech.) Bush began saying that Congress failed to act a year ago, when he proposed plans to save Social Security. Instantly, whoops and hollars erupted from one side of the House as cameras cut to liberal Democrats jumping up and cheering like kids watching a Disney movie. I couldn't believe my eyes... they were actually celebrating LACK of ACCOMPLISHMENT. Democrats were proud of the fact they have accomplished absolutely nothing these past five years, and instead of done nothing but block and naysay everything this President would like to do. And more importantly, they were proud of not finding out a solution to a problem that will affect all of us very personally in about forty years: Social Security.
Never before have I seen a group of politicians who have lost their way like America's Democratic Senators. Instead of proposing anything new, any original ideas or plans, they will filibuster and lie about Republican intentions. The cameras cut instantly to Hillary Clinton, who was smiling and laughing like she has just won the lottery. I can only imagine what she was thinking: "We did it! We fought President Bush on his idea of fixing a problem before it happens! Now generations of young people will have terrible retirements!"
Of course, their applause was silenced once Bush finished his sentence: "yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away." And then a roar of Republican cheering burst out, reminding the Democrats that they have done nothing but prolong the inevitable. I couldn't help but feel like I was watching an episode of Jerry Springer-- one of the ones where the audience is split on the issue, and they squabble back and forth while the people on stage just want to finish what they were saying.
The rest of the President's speech went on unhindered by obnoxious cheers of stagnation. And while I didn't bother to listen to any of the pundits ramble on about what they thought of the speech... instead I shut off the television confident in our country's leader, and a little wary of those who celebrate failure.
