1/Bush may want to strengthen marriage in this country but he strained mine last night. Just as he launched into sermon about how “a strong America must also value the institution of marriage,” my husband was furious with me for making him miss the end of the Tennessee/Kentucky college basketball game. (Yes, we are a two TV family, but the other one was broken.) And, as for trying “to send the right messages to our children,” I did make my daughter watch the speech. Her response was to ask why Bush doesn’t propose a constitutional amendment making it illegal for pop stars like Britney to marry if he cares so much about preserving the sanctity of the institution of marriage.
2/The New York Times observed today that the President concluded his address by echoing the words Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote on the day he died in April 1945: “My fellow citizens, we now move forward with confidence and faith.” Faith and confidence in this speech? Pleeez. In a time of revolutionary despair, during the Great Depression and World War II, President Roosevelt gave America a vision of hope, confidence and courage and told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Instead, Bush just reminded us last night that this Administration has nothing to fear but the end of fear itself.
3/Watching Teddy Kennedy‘s expressions during the speech almost made up for the fact that there were 71 rounds of applause. (71 rounds? They didn’t even get that in Soviet Central Committee meetings.) The first shot showed Kennedy’s despair; the second showed his disbelief when Bush brandished the new threat–“weapons of mass destruction-related program activities,” by the end Kennedy was downright grimacing. And, in a post-speech interview, the senior Senator from Mass. was literally hopping mad as he lashed out at Bush’s mendacity–“see what he does, not what he says,” he warned.
4/Hopeful sign of life in the Congressional chamber: the small round of applause which greeted Bush’s warning that “key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year.”
5/And what was all that stuff about steroids? Was it Bush’s way of taking a shot at Arnold in case California’s new governor succeeds in getting an amendment passed allowing US citizens born outside of the US to run for President? As Bush warned, steroid use “…sends the wrong message–that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character.”
NOTE: Click here for Robert Borosage’s “Kitchen Table State of the Union,” which offers a true look at America at the dawn of 2004.
