Abstract

Bush's Stump Speech

The author comments on U.S. president George W. Bush's 2004 State of the Union address. George W. Bush's State of the Union speech clearly signaled that he plans to run as a wartime, prosperity candidate. By setting the agenda this way, he is trying to force the Democrats to argue why one of them would make a better Commander in Chief and would be better at keeping a vibrant economy going. To defend this program, Bush once again had to distort it, presenting the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq as a global coalition effort to enforce UN sanctions. Explaining why the "war on terrorism" must continue, he conflated terrorist attacks in Bali, Jakarta and elsewhere with the conflict in Iraq--although all evidence suggests that Saddam Hussein, while a brutal dictator, maintained no working relationship with Al Qaeda. On the domestic side, Bush proposes to take his already extreme policies even further, with permanent tax cuts for the wealthy placing a straitjacket on the budget and making any real domestic initiatives impossible. As part of his empty "Jobs for the 21st Century" label, the President promised more money for community colleges, the very institutions taking it on the chin from the state fiscal crises on which he has turned his back. Most remarkable, Bush celebrated the economy, claiming that permanent tax cuts will create more jobs and that his budget will "cut the deficit in half over the next five years."