Opinion of Bush's 2006 State of the Union Address

[A18]

Lame. It had its moment, but it's clear that Bush can not give an address without promising more and more government, particularly of the federal variety.

[Joe Republic]

He used 22 of the 25 key words, which means I'm drunk.

[A18]

k

[riceowl]

I liked it.  Slow to start, but got good in the last 30 minutes.

And only 1 9/11.

[Joe Republic]

Sorry, I should explain my last post.  This keyword bingo card is brought to you by the DNC:

Link (Click on 'bingo cards')

And I'm not actually drunk; I was just playing on the drinking game craze that has emerged every time Bush makes a speech.

[Inverted Things]

He showed a lot of passion when he was talking about foreign affairs during the first 20 minutes or so. He hit a point after that where he seemed to lose some interest in what he was saying.

[ian]

I hate the way he lies and can get away with it.
I watched for only a little bit of time and noticed two absolute fallacies.
1) He said the abortion rate is down, and it isn't.  Because of his idiotic abstinence policy, abortion rates have gone UP not down.
2) He said that test scores have gone up since the inception of NCLB, and that, too, is not the case, as I recall.

[ATFFL]

I hate the way he lies and can get away with it.
I watched for only a little bit of time and noticed two absolute fallacies.
1) He said the abortion rate is down, and it isn't.  Because of his idiotic abstinence policy, abortion rates have gone UP not down.
2) He said that test scores have gone up since the inception of NCLB, and that, too, is not the case, as I recall.

I can confirm that the latter is definitely true.  3 of the 4 main measurements (4th grade reading, 4th grade math, 8th grade reading and 8th grade math) are up with the fourth one being flat.  I have read some very deceptive articles about it claiming that it has failed because special ed scores are flat.  this is to be expected since NCLB did nothing to impact them.  The reauthorization of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) in 2004 does.

[TomC]

2) He said that test scores have gone up since the inception of NCLB, and that, too, is not the case, as I recall.

Kind of true, but suspect. In Tennessee, for example, we changed our test. It's easier now (although better written and organized). But how they are scored has changed too. For example, in English II (10th grade) getting 52% of the questions right gets you a 70% and passing. In BIOLOGY, 36%=70%. Hmm

Also, in 2002 the test started counting as part of a high school student's semester grade, so students became more motivated to do well and not merely pass.

[J-Mann]

Eh, it was decent.  I gave it a positive.  It's a typical State of the Union -- it's not going to piss anyone off, be too technical or be too honest, but it's designed to make everyone happy, or at least pacified. 

It's rare that the opposition can actually speak out against what the president has just talked about -- he gets the edge because he speaks first and remains positive.  To counter that, Democrats almost have to be whiny and negative.  They'd do well to actually put an agenda together and present it in an easy-to-understand format for the public, as opposed to just dissenting all the time.  Obama is starting to get it.  We'll see if any of the other ones are.

[A18]

1) He said the abortion rate is down, and it isn't.  Because of his idiotic abstinence policy, abortion rates have gone UP not down.

http://www.factcheck.org/article330.html

Politicians from Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Howard Dean have recently contended that abortions have increased since George W. Bush took office in 2001.

This claim is false. It's based on an an opinion piece that used data from only 16 states. A study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of 43 states found that abortions have actually decreased. Update, May 26: The author of the original claim now concedes that the Guttmacher study is "significantly better" than his own.

[The Duke]

Sorry, I should explain my last post.  This keyword bingo card is brought to you by the DNC:

Link (Click on 'bingo cards')

And I'm not actually drunk; I was just playing on the drinking game craze that has emerged every time Bush makes a speech.

That's interesting, because it was a Richard Nixon SOTU drinking game that got Bush in trouble in the first place.

[Frodo]

I don't believe much of what he says, and I strongly doubt whether he will follow through with his rhetoric especially on proposals that sound as if they were lifted straight out of the Democratic Party platform...but I responded positively nonetheless especially regarding his alternative energy initiative and to form a bipartisan commission to tackle the rising costs of the three main entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. 

[ian]

Thank yous to all those who helped me find more info for my claims.

[A18]

Thank yous to all those who helped me find more info for my claims.

Uh, my info refuted your claim.

[MODU]

Positive.  It was a good, fairly balanced speech.

[riceowl]

Thank yous to all those who helped me find more info for my claims.

Uh, my info refuted your claim.

I think he knows that and he's trying to be gracious.

Ass.

[ian]

Thank yous to all those who helped me find more info for my claims.

Uh, my info refuted your claim.

I am aware.  I am thanking ya'll for the additional information; I don't want to be ignorant!

[nini2287]

He used 22 of the 25 key words, which means I'm drunk.

You're doing it wrong.  I had 10 key words and each time one of them was used I drank.  One of them was security, so I'm drunk too.

[Frodo]

BTW, has there ever been a SOTU where the President doesn't say that the state of the Union is (invariably) 'strong'?  Every president, it seems, has said the same damn thing. 

[ATFFL]

BTW, has there ever been a SOTU where the President doesn't say that the state of the Union is (invariably) 'strong'?  Every president, it seems, has said the same damn thing. 

Ford did not in his first speech, I believe.

[angus]

I voted Positive(O).  He did speak about our addiction to oil, a subject about which I often post.  But honestly it did not quite leave me fully erect.  As usual it was short on specifics, long on platitudes.  In the end, though, J-Mann put it best "Eh-it was decent."

the problem is that I watched the "Democratic Response" before I voted here.  Man, what a cracker.  that guy should have been wearing bib overalls and chewing on a long dry stalk of ryegrass while scratching his ass.  It was like forrest gump in a red tie and nixonian US flag lapel pin.  I didn't think it was possible to find someone who is less comfortable with reading words from a teleprompter than George Bush, but the Dems managed to find someone.  That guy could definitely get a seat on the Columbus city council.  And what a weak statement he made about Iraq.  That's being generous.  Of course, that's more his speechwriter's fault than his.

Anyway, to be fair, my vote was cast after I had the other side's hero to compare.  If I had voted here before I watched the "Democratic Response" I may very well have voted Negative(O).


edit:  russert and matthews are congratulating him.  In general, the MSNBC and FOX News people are all happy about Bush's speech, for the most part.  Fred Barnes of Fox calls it more "incremental" as opposed to "broad sweeping proposals"  The CNN take seems to be that they all suck, not only the president and the democrat responder, but also pretty much all the democrats and republicans in the chamber.  They did this little split screen thing so you could see how partisan they have become.  I do think the president's speech was wisely written.  And Bush seems to be finding his way around a teleprompter.  Finally.  And I think the fact that the comparative speech was so weak, and that the country seems more interested in playing the Who's Gay game than in real issues, will ultimately help Bush.  For the dems, the mainstream press is playing up the infamous 2245 T-shirt more than they're playing up Forrest Gump.  So both parties should count their blessings for the diversions.  Life goes on.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It may have had more lies than substance.

Lots of vague stuff he won't follow through with. Anyone remember Mars?

[angus]

sure, it was my favorite candy bar when I was a kid.  Unfortunately my parents were anti-chocolate and anti-nut, so all I could legitimately have was Zero.  All the mars I had were on the sly, and given to me by an unscrupulous aunt.

Hey, does anyone remember UB313?  Seriously.  When you child gets into school they'll be teaching that there are ten planets.  We've come a long way since Ptolmey's geocentric six-planet model with Primus Mobile on the outside shaking things up.  Well, at least outside Kansas public schools we have. 

But, yeah, it was pretty vague.  I'll agree with that.

[MODU]

It may have had more lies than substance.

Lots of vague stuff he won't follow through with. Anyone remember Mars?

NASA has a very good program on Mars on the books (and on their website).  A lot of R&D is going into creating habitation modules as well as identifying probable landing sites for bases on the planet.  It's not something that will happen over night, and Bush never said he expected it to.  

Care to insert your other foot into your mouth now?