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First thing - was McCain asleep?
Anybody else want to start singing “In the Year 2525” when he started talking about years and Social Security?
Yep.
Heh heh. I’m in an evil mood, so I will try some “predictions” on “key words”
- mandate
- freedom
- press on
- steadfast
- liberty
- Gawd
- victory
- terror
- _____ haters
- the plinian eruption triggered a pyroclastic flow
Your evil moods are about as evil as this. 
A quick observation about the speech: GW seems to have taken some speaking classes or something. His delivery has been smoother since the elections, it seems.
Cute picture. But I guess I should have said playful or goofy instead of evil. 
Who was the Repub who appeared to be doing a crossword puzzle?
Didn’t watch. I’m sure I didn’t miss much.
Since he no longer has to keep up the “Aw, shucks” good ol’ boy image to get elected, he can now speak the way that he was raised to speak, shedding the facade he has maintained for the last dozen years or so.
Advance transcript here.
Don’t ask me how Atrios got hold of a copy, but it looks like the real thing.
You DIDN’T miss much, IMO. Pretty much hit all the usual points; started off with domestic issues for once, went pretty smoothly and non-controversially till the first big hiccup, where Bush said Soc. Sec. will be bankrupt by 2043 or thereabouts (Dem side booed loudly, so I guess there’s a bit of disagreement there), and followed up by plugging his personal retirement accounts. Another slight hiccup when he briefly detoured into insane blather about ‘protecting’ marriage by repressing gays (well, of course gays weren’t mentioned, but who else is marriage being ‘protected’ from?), although that really was nothing we hadn’t heard before.
On to the ritual saber-rattling towards the Enemies of Freedom, in which Bush most notably practically promised that we’d take on Iran militarily just as soon as we are able, and maybe Syria too, if they don’t straighten up and fly right like, right now. Closed with a whole lot of heartwarming and fuzzy generalities about how Iraq’s turned the corner, where the bulk of the ‘freedoms’, at least a dozen or so, were uttered. At this point I was seriously drifting off to sleep; which to be fair was because I’ve had a long day at work. Frankly I’d rather George W. put me to sleep than cause me to sit bolt upright, shouting “What the fuck?” at the viddie screen.
Of course, once again I was disappointed that the President chose to ignore the growing threat of Cognitive Dissonance…
But I was heartened to hear how much attention was paid to the terrible burden on our entrepenuerial class. In that one word! “Asbestos” lies a whole saga of greedy, grasping trial lawyers and thier gold-bricking, malingering clients who have sunk their vampiristic fangs into noble coporate giants.
Haliburton, for instance.
And, by the way, where was Ahmed Chalabi? Kind of missed his face, beaming in porcine glee. Must have been too busy, building democracy. Yes, that must be it.
The President’s talk about social security and how much money would be required in various years was a perfect example of a “not lie”. He didn’t lie one bit. He just deceived dramatically by implying that this was somehow a problem with social security rather than simply the fact that the government eventually has to pay back what it has borrowed from the trust fund.
The irony of the President who has sunk this country back deeper into debt wondering how the government could come up with this money that it owes was rich indeed!
I was quite disappointed that Bush has renewed his fight for the FMA, after I had read that he was dropping it as an issue. Other than that, I wasn’t surprised with much of anything he said.
I have to disagree. President Bush has always been a terrible public speaker going back to his days as Governor. However, he does well with speeches he can practice. What you’re seeing is a practiced speech. Come Monday he will be back to his Yogi Berra impersonations.
I was humming along also…
Did anyone notice that he actually pronounced “nuclear” correctly the first time he said it? I think there was a bit of backsliding later on, but I distinctly heard nu-cle-ar come out of his lips.
The Democrats are on the losing end of this Social Security issue. Young people want change, and as long as Bush can assure the old folks that their SS checks aren’t going to be compromised, the Democrats have to do more than just say “leave everything alone”.
And say what you will about showmanship, but the picture of that Iraqi woman hugging the mother of the slain US soldier was powerful beyond description. Hold that up against the Deomcrats booing the Social Security message, and that’s all Bush needs to take away from this event.
I watched the first half of the rebutal, and it sure looks like the Democrats were trying to out-ah-shucks Bush: Ya know, I walked into the only rest’runt in Pohdunk Nevada, and little Timmy walked in with his skateboard tucked under his arm… Cute. Very cute.
Actually, not long after that interview, he was inundated with protests from unhappy members of his social conservative base, who threatened with withhold support for SS reform, so he backtracked on the backtrack.
Not that he’s going to be sorry if the measure fails again, of course, but there you go.
And so spontaneous! Just happened to be sitting right behind her, I mean, what are the odds!
They used that woman’s grief shamelessly. Grief she wouldn’t be having if it weren’t for Don and George’s Excellent Adventure. Enough to gag a maggot right off the bumper of a garbage truck.
The Democratic response was inane beyond belief. And about about that Nancy Pelosi: Iraq is a magnet for terrorists, and al-Qaida is attacking us there, so we’d better leave!
No wonder the Democrats get hammered in the polls on Social Security.
CNN is saying that the first Gallup poll after the speech showed only 13% of those polled disliked it. The rest either liked it very much (60%) or liked it somewhat. This is his highest “liked very much” rating since 2002. That should scare Democrats, because his proposals are ambitious and contentious. Social Security Reform, threatening Syria, putting the screws to Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. This was a momentous speech, and 60% of the population liked it very much, and 27% liked it somewhat. The people are moving over to Bush’s side on the war on terror, and I think they were ahead of him on Social Security. Democrats may not like it, but the notion of private accounts has great appeal to young people who overwhelmingly believe that Social Security won’t be there for them by the time they retire.
From the boos, it sounds like the Democrats have decided to make Social Security reform the battleground. They’re going to concede the war on terror and some social issues, and dig in their heels on Social Security. That’s going to be an interesting fight to watch, because the stakes are really high on this one. It remains to be seen which way the population will ultimately come down on the issue, but one side’s gonna win, and it’ll be a big win.
I meant “on security”. D’oh!