Not Live Blogging the SOTU

Updated below.

I would have, but Blogger chose that time to have publishing issues.

My first impression was that Mr. Bush sounded like he had just arrived in Washington and found all these problems, like people without health care and a huge budget deficit. Wow, how did this happen? Somebody do something!

Next he's tried to scare the people by making it out the GWOT to be a turf war between religious fanatics. Nothing, it seems to this president, is so complicated that it can't be boiled down to simplistic and stark threats. Are you skeerd yet? I wonder if he has any understanding of how hollow he sounds.

The rehashing of the war in Iraq would probably go over a lot better if he wasn't the one who started the war in the first place. And the sop about supporting the troops would carry a lot more water if the president had supported them with the equipment and the number they needed to fight this blighted war. It's not the fault of the troops that their Commander In Chief decided to fight the war on the cheap. And once again he said something along the lines of "the war we find ourselves in." Excuse me? We found ourselves in this war because you got us in there in the first place. It's not like you got lost on the Palmetto Expressway and found yourself in Hialeah.

After the speech, even his supporters were saying, "Well, he didn't screw it up too badly." That's being charitable, and the nicest thing about the speech was the tribute to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Other than that...next time, fax it in.

I am looking forward to what Senator Webb has to say.

Update: Last night I didn't get a chance to summarize my thoughts on Sen. Jim Webb's response to the president's State of the Union address (and even if I had, Blogger was cratered until after midnight). But I thought he did a pretty damn good job.

I liked the way he started out by saying he wasn't going to respond to the president's message word for word but basically tell the viewers about the disconnect between the president and reality. The economy, energy, health care, and the war are all areas of disagreement, but unlike the previous majority, Sen. Webb promised that he and his fellow Democrats would make an effort to work with the president and the GOP on finding solutions. If not, though, he said that the Democrats "will be showing him the way."

I also like the way he took on one of the GOP talking points -- the "class warfare" tome they always trot out when it comes to economics: raising the minimum wage, providing better health care, or making the rich and the corporations pay their fair share of the tax burden. Sen. Webb quoted Theodore Roosevelt -- the Republican Roosevelt:

Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt

Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves "as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other." And he did something about it.

It's interesting how the bow-tie daddies like George F. Will and Tucker Carlson are so eager to fight a real war in Iraq -- or let someone else's kid fight it for them -- and conquer the world, but shy away from a war metaphor that might actually cost them something.

I really think in the two men you saw the real contrast between the leadership of the Republicans and Democrats. Sen. Webb was confident, self-assured, and politely defiant, and it's a refreshing change from the whimpering pleas from the past for cooperation -- or even a key to the restroom.