Independents by their very nature are at least nominally unbiased…at least they don’t associate so strongly with either the Democrat or Republican PARTY as far as blindly toeing the party line. I consider myself an Independent btw and while I’m no fan of GW’s I’d say that at least a fairly large percentage of Independents of various stripes were either neutral towards Bush or in favor of him…otherwise he would never have been re-elected, no?
Gee…really BG? Being a libertarian myself I never would have realized that we were independents.
The reason I asked for ‘Republicans and Independents’ is I wanted to get a different viewpoint not always seen on this board…instead of the same old knee jerk anti-Bush crap. Personally I thought the speech sucked and I wanted to see if the self styled Republicans on the board agreed. As for the Independents, I generally like to hear what they have to say more than either of the folks who self identify with either of the major parties as they are often more non-partisan…i.e. they actually have valid reason for disliking Bush and looking critically, while also are able to listen objectively if he actually makes good points.
Case in point. rjung doesn’t even need to post and I already know what he thinks and can predict he will say stupid shit like this reguardless if Bush is even mentioned in a thead. And he obviously is incapable of reading more than a few words at a time since I said “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.”
You see rjung there are ALREADY at least two threads on the board that give plenty of examples of what folks like you thought of the speech…I was interested in trying to get ANOTHER viewpoint for a change. More specifically I was trying to draw out the very few pro-Bush or Bush-neutral dopers out there to try and coax them to give THEIR thoughts on the speech where perhaps they wouldn’t feel like they were going to be overwhelmed by, er, folks like you.
Not that it seems to be working…none of the folks I had hoped to hear from have showed up, while all the usual suspects have come crashing in as, well, usual. C’est la vie I guess. You could at least be well behaved and actually give your thoughts on the speech…something a bit more than ‘it sucked’ would be niece.
Bush actually closely split the independent vote in 2004, he got 48% Kerry got 49%.
As for the speech? The State of the Union is meaningless political theatre at its worst. In general while it’s useful to have an idea what the President has planned for the coming year, ultimately I’m a whole lot more interested in what Bush actually does versus what he says he’s going to do (same for all politicians, actually.)
I’m a lefty myself, but maybe some other respondents will have ideas on the subject I was wondering about: What happened to the Space Exploration Initiative?
A little over a year ago, many on this board were delighted to see that the Administration was committing serious resources to a renewed space program:
But nowadays it seems that NASA is having budget troubles that threaten the Initiative, and I didn’t hear any mention about it in the SOTU address. Will there be a renewed Administration commitment to funding it in next year’s budget? Or is the President’s silence on space exploration a tacit signal that the White House is “backing away” from the program?
I thought the speech was fine. Of course, I didn’t listen to it. When was the last time anyone heard a good SotU speech? It’s a constitutional requirement that is made into theater. And, frankly, I’m finding it impossible to listen to Bush talk these days without wanting to smash my TV. I know he’s not as sutpid as he sounds, but my God does he ever sound stupid!! How long is it until the next election…?
Meh. I could get behind most of his talking points if it weren’t for those pesky details of implementation. Being a force to end tyrrany in the world is all well and good as long as the methods chosen do not merely substitute one tyrant for another. Ending dependence on oil sounds good, but what if the plan is massive ethanol subsidies? Social Security needs to be fixed, but record spending and tax cuts aren’t going to give much wiggle room to actually DO anything with it. Not thrilled with the “life is a gift from our creator” bit, even though I’m pro-life I don’t have anything against research. Especially research as promising as stem cell research.
Personally I think the Fed and foreign capital had much, MUCH, more to do with the recovery we’ve seen so far than anything Bush did, so kind of annoyed with his taking credit for it.
I think I qualify as an independent, not being American and all that. I didn’t hear the speech, but I have read it, so I won’t comment on the delivery. It’s full of stuff which sounds good. He’s learned from Tony Blair to give total figures rather than figures per year. A robust defence of Iraq. Etc.
It remains to be seen whether he will carry out what he has pledged.
When was the last time anyone heard a good SotU speech? It’s a constitutional requirement that is made into theater. And, frankly, I’m finding it impossible to listen to Bush talk these days without wanting to smash my TV. I know he’s not as sutpid as he sounds, but my God does he ever sound stupid!! How long is it until the next election…?