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. He trotted out the mythic threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, except now reality tempered the lie. Gone was the nuclear capacity that threatened mushroom clouds over New York; now Iraq's danger was that it had "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of [concealed] equipment"--not quite on a par with last year's warnings of imminent Armageddon. 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. In one of the rare moments during the speech when reason prevailed in the chamber, a small round of applause broke out when Bush said--as a prelude to calling for their renewal--that "key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year."

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. To give the appearance of caring about soaring healthcare costs, he again urged tax deductions for healthcare expenses and vowed to defend his prescription-drug bill. But that plan, a shameless payoff to drug companies, actually prohibits Medicare from negotiating a better price for seniors. The result, as Consumers Union reports, is that seniors will pay more for their drugs.

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