Wednesday, February 02, 2005

State of the Union play by play

So, about 2 hours before the big speech, I decided I'd do a stream of consciousness post on the State of the Union address. Here's the results:

6:05pm - Here comes Bush, smug as ever.
6:07pm - Wolf Blitzer just keeps talking about nothing. Please shut up already!
6:09pm - Wow, Bush just went right into the Iraq elections to start off, that's a bold strategy.
6:12pm - John McCain looks very unhappy after Bush's remarks about the economy. Bush just said the government spends too much money and he'll cut the deficit in half by 2009. I think that's going to be pretty hard to do once invade Iran and Syria just for fun.
6:15pm - Bush wants to increase Pell grants. Hopefully that will get funding, unlike No Child Left Behind.
6:16pm - Bush just said we need to stop frivilous asbestos claims!!! I guess people don't need to breathe in their own homes.
6:17pm - 1st Standing Ovation
6:19pm - 2nd Standing Ovation, this time the Democrats stood up too. Good ole fear of foreign oil.
6:20pm - 3rd Standing Ovation, reform tax code.
6:21pm - 4th Standing Ovation, this one was for guest passes for illegal immigrant workers. Never thought I'd hear a Republican actually be an advocate for that idea. 5th Standing Ovation, here comes the big Social Security pitch. Another fucking stand ovation, I'm not counting these fucking things anymore.
6:22pm - Ahhhhhh, there's that famous Bush smirk we've all been waiting for.
6:24pm - Whoa! The Democrats were loudly scoffing at Bush's Social Security collapse prediction. Another standing ovation, but the Democrats are all sitting down. They are not clapping. The Democrats are pissed!
6:28pm - Here comes privatization, or in the nicely packaged, sanitized for your protection Republican version, "Volunteer personal retirement accounts".
6:31pm - Oh joy, here comes the morals and values crap.
6:32pm - Holy shit, he just endorsed the constitutional amendment against gay marriage. I can't believe he actually brought that up in the State of the Union address.
6:37pm - Bush wants to expands the use of DNA evidence and provide millions in funding for defense lawyers in capitol cases. Wow, that's a reasonably enlightened position, especially from a guy who oversaw so many executions in Texas when he was governor.
6:41pm - Nice standing ovation for supporting the military. Mad props for the military.
6:45pm - Bush is back to the elections in Ukraine, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Dick Cheney just started coughing, damn that guy is old.
6:47pm - $350 million for the Palestinians, that's a good step. It's not quite the $6 billion we give to Israel every year, but a step in the right direction.
6:51pm - Pretty good words about Iraqis' courage in voting under threat of death. Bush just recognized a woman Iraqi human rights activist who just voted in the elections.
6:56pm - I have to admit, Bush is at his best when he talks about freedom and democracy, he's doing far better in the foreign policy part of his speech than his domestic policy section.
7:00pm - That's a nice moment, the mom of a marine who was killed in Fallujah is hugging that woman Iraqi. Did he just play the emotion card? Yes. Was it still a great moment? Yes.

That's it folks. I'd say it was one of the better Bush speeches I have seen, but I think his domestic policy section was pretty weak. Overall, he started off weak, but ended pretty strong. I just watched a few minutes of the Democratic response... (long sigh) damn the Democrats need better leaders and speech writers.