Bush's SOTU - Un-impressive, Un-Truthful

Bush did his State of the Union address before Congress... And Washingtonians weren't very impressed.

SurveyUSA News Poll
Geography Surveyed: State of Washington
Data Collected: 01/23/2007
Release Date: 01/23/2007 10:40 PM ET
Sponsor: KING-TV Seattle
Asked of 532 who watched state of union
Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 4.3%

Is the president in touch? Or out of touch with the average American?

42%	In Touch
54%	Out Of Touch
4%	Not Sure

Will this state of the union speech bring Americans together? Or divide Americans further?

40%	Bring Americans Together
41%	Divide Americans Further
19%	Not Sure

Is the president telling Americans the whole truth about how things are going in Iraq, both good and bad? Is the president shading the truth, to make things in Iraq sound better than they actually are? Or, is the president intentionally misleading the American people about how things are going in Iraq?

35%	Telling The Whole Truth
37%	Shading The Truth
25%	Intentionally Misleading
3%	Not Sure

Bush just re-hashed the same old themes. It's clear that he has no interest in what the American people think or what they want.

The Democratic response by Senator James Webb was far more interesting. He called for a new, intelligent approach to ending the occupation of Iraq. He also spoke about our economy, with a new and refreshing economic populist tone.

... When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.

Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.

In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace. ...

And to add insult to injury; Bush's former base, the archconservatives, aren't happy with him either:

Richard Viguerie Blasts Bush

Conservative pioneer Richard Viguerie has a burr in his saddle after watching the president's speech. Remember, though, that. Mr. Viguerie is on the record as stating that President Reagan wasn't sufficiently conservative. Viguerie is the press's to-go guy when there's a need to quote a conservative who thinks some other conservative isn't conservative enough.

"The underlying message in this State of the Union Address was directed toward the Democrats: In effect, we can work together--let's make a deal. The underlying message directed toward the conservatives was: You have no place else to go. ...

( From: Hotline On Call: more)