SOTU

Generally, I'm not a huge fan of the State of the Union. I have watched them sporadically in the past, but I basically think they're organized theater that has little resemblance to anything related to the "truth" or what's possible. Clinton was notorious for using the speech as an opportunity to laundry list dozens of initiatives that would never get done, but sounded good to Joe Average American. But basically, SOTU is a colossal waste of time and little more than an excuse for an extended clap fest for the President.

Last night was no exception. I did not watch the speech (I was working), but I listened to most of it.

Blah.

Let's see - Same craptacular lies and half-truths about all the foreign policy/war on terror stuff that the Pres and his crew have been trumpeting for months. Add in paranoid delusions of animal-human hybrid clones, a few digs about policy (social security, for example), and a bushel of lies about education. Oh, and a shocking bit of news. Did anyone know that America is addicted to oil? Yeah, apparently, the sky is blue as well.

Oh, and did you hear? Cindy Sheehan got arrested for wearing a T-shirt. Blah. Of course she did. Covering the SOTU is like covering the Super Bowl. Everyone goes nuts for much longer than they should.

Anyway, SOTU makes for boring theater and crappy blog posts. There plenty of other places that are picking through the litany of lies, so anything I add would just be redundant. Instead, I'm going to make a few comments about the Democrat response.

Tim Keane, the new Democratic Governor of Virginia, was tabbed to retort our emminent rhetoritician last night. It was, in my mind, a safe pick with low risk and high rewards. If Keane screwed up, the public blames him for being an inexperienced newbie. If he kicks ass, the whole Democratic party wins.

Well, I have to say, the text of the speech was quite good. Not exactly a grand slam, but probably a home run. The only problem was, Keane sucked. He was terrible. No, he was worse than terrible. His speech had one memorable line that he was supposed to repeat, "There is a better way." It was a theme speech much like Clinton's DNC speech before the last election that I commented on previously. Had it been delivered properly, it would have been an awesome speech. Sadly, Keane sounded nervous and rushed at times. But most egregiously, Keane blew it with the line. He should have said:

There, is, a, better, way.

Instead of:

Thereisabetterway.

If you get my drift. I guess that was the risk of getting a relatively unknown to give a national address. I also thought the addition of Coretta Scott King into the speech wasn't as seemlessly deployed as I expected. In the text, it looks like a nice reference, but in the oral version, it just seemed out of place.

At any rate, the next few days will be dominated by the following:

a) Bush's bump - Does the SOTU push his popularity above 40%?
b) Policy - Can Bush get any of his initiative done? (No.)
c) Winners-win - Will Alito help Bush (not bloody likely)?
d) War, war, war

The media are sheep.