State of the Union thoughts

We watched it from beginning to end, then we printed out the speech to pour over it. All I can say is that for the most part we were fairly unfazed by it. It was the typical rhetoric to be expected of a president entering his final year. There were a few things that we took note of and enjoyed.

-- He again made a call for his judicial nominees to receive swift and fair treatment, and their appropo up-or-down vote.

-- He made it concisely clear that he wasn't going to tolerate this earmark malarkey from Congress any longer. Of course, our gripe about this point is that he swallowed his veto pen for five years while pork and earmarks went unchecked, and boondoggles like No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bill sailed through.

-- He highlighted operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he also stated that there will be minor troop withdrawals in the coming months; a draw down of surge forces, as he promised. But he qualified that with a reminder that the commanders on the ground will have the final say. Additionally, the recently dispatched Marines to Afghanistan are being sent for a surge of sorts there to help coalition and NATO forces that are still dealing with cross-border raids.

-- On the subject of immigration, he sounds far more believable that John McCain does when he talks about security and enforcement first. He still wants a guest worker program, which we do support. Time will tell if he's serious about this point.

To be honest, we found ourselves yawning at a couple of points. It's not that we weren't interested, but the thing just seemed so blah-blah. We expected to see a bit more fire from a man that has just befuddled Congress for the last year. The overall gist of the speech was simple:

"If you think I'm a lame duck, think again."

That's what we wanted to hear, but did it take forty-plus minutes? Nope, it could have been summed up quicker and easier. But, then again, this is DC where hot air is prevalent. We'll continue to support this president, regardless of what was said, provided he's standing up for what he believes in. We believe he is sincere regarding pork, judges, and security-first on the borders. And he clearly isn't going to let the Democrats run roughshod on him. He's going to fight them, and if they think they're going to be able to blow the budget off they are sorely mistaken.

Publius II