I only see one thread on the SOTU address in GD right now and it is a prediction thread, speculating on what folks thought Bush would have to say. Well, we’ve seen what he said now and I was wonder if I could get the reaction from Republicans and Independants on their take. I pretty much know what self styled Dems on the board think of it already, but feel free to give your thoughts as well though I’m most interested in folks who are either pro-Bush or neutral as to the speech.
-XT
Republican here. I’m not a big fan of the State of the Union speech in general, so I give GWB a good grade for keeping it to under an hour. I was encouraged to hear him raise the Social Security issue again, in a way that suggested to me that he might try to move forward on this in a bi-partisan way, unlike last time. I thought he was right to take credit for some of the positive things that are going on, one of which is the economy, IMO. I thought it was silly to claim that he was doing anything about deficit reduction.
It was kinda blah. No big programs suggested, didn’t threaten to invade anyone, etc. Lottsa stuff everyone more or less agrees on, like reducing oil dependency, reducing the deficit, more teachers, etc.
He threw down on the NSA wiretaps, but he’d already been making basically the same defense for a couple weeks.
Probably a good thing Bush is being less confrontational, but it doesn’t leave much to debate after the speech.
Almost forgot. I’m relived the federal gov’t is finally making a stand against the threat of human/animal hybrids. We’ve offically gone from basing our national defense startegy on bad Tom Clancy books to bad Michael Crichton movies.
As goofy as that sounded, you know there was some evil scientist in a bunker in Nebraska or somewhere watching who was all “Son of a BITCH! Bova, dear, I’ve got some bad news.”
–Cliffy
Actually, seriously, what was with that human/animal hybrid thing. I imagine that no line of a SOTU address just gets thrown in, it must’ve come from somewhere. Here’s the quote:
Is this based on some legislation someone has brewing? Is this one of those “codewords” to the religious right?
And doesn’t biology combine human and animal genes all the time, either to produce better animal models of human disease or to breed animals that can produce human proteins for experiments or medicines? From my limited understanding, banning this sort of thing would do a lot of damage to American biological research.
Republican here. I thought that the speech was quite good. I think he effectively and correctly portrayed the war in Iraq as both necessary and winnable. I also cheered during my favorite part of the speech.
I had to laugh when the Democrats clapped when he mentioned that his proposed Social Security reforms were not enacted, but I was glad that he confronted them with the obvious fact that the problems aren’t going away. Until both parties come together on this issue, it is going to be gridlocked, probably because each party:
Overall, I thought he did a good job.
As for the human-animal hybrids, as strange as it sounds, that stuff is indeed being researched. Pigs with human blood, rabbit eggs fused with human cells, etc. Weird, wild stuff. I agree with his stance, btw.
Just a boogeyman, I suspect. It’s easier to get something banned if you can frame it as a potential monster. I mean, you don’t disagree that we should stop human/animal hybrid experiments, do you??
I suppose that I qualify as “Independant”. I thought it sucked. Same old drivel. God bless America. Siss boom bah. Yadda yadda yadda.
I find it funny that you seem to think that **Independent=Neutral ** to Bush. Speaking as an independent, from a family of independents, with many independent and third party friends. I don’t know a single independent that has a neutral attitude towards Bush. Most, myself included, loathe him! The rest I know are on the fence.
While I didn’t watch it last night, I did quickly read the transcript this morning. I really don’t see anything to get excited about, it’s basically the same trite from any one of his other speeches, rehashed together and served with pomp and circumstance.
A few things caught my attention though:
I hope this isn’t an allusion to more military shenanigans!
Hmmm, and there was just a thread about this. I don’t find their friendship odd, though I do find it bizarre that W would mention it in his address!
Speaking of creating human-animal hybrids, this was in *News of the Weird * this week:
Uh oh! Not only is the boogeyman a monster, he’s a Commie to boot! :eek:
Translation: “Wahh! I can’t handle dissent!”
What’s next, asking Scientologists how they feel about Battlefield Earth?
Socialists, Greens and Libertarians are all “independents,” xtisme. And practically all of them hate the Bush Admin.
aha! a clever ruse to “out” the pugs on the board. I approve…
Bolsheviks?? Any Bolsheviks? Bolsheviks line up under the portrait of Lenin, please.
“indifferent about the quality of food they eat.”
at long last, a market for MRE’s
I could have done without the idiotic, “We’re addicted to oil” comment. The U.S. is ‘addicted to oil’ the same way that I’m ‘addicted to breathing’.
I know exactly what he was doing - trying to take away the Democrat’s issue. The buzz is that ‘energy independence’ was going to be one of the Democrat’s big talking points in this election cycle. Bush is trying to co-opt it. It’s still nonsensical.
:rolleyes: The difference, Sam, is that we’re not going to run out of air.
and they can’t raise the price
Anyone else find this funny?
Meh.