The State of the Union, 2006

No, I didn't watch it. Other responsibilities called me elsewhere, and to tell the truth, I wasn't that interested.

Reading the analysis & commentaries, it appears that the speech hit the right notes on foreign policy, hit some questionable ones on domestic policy, and was big on thoughts but not on plans. Regarding Iran, the President took the right tone, but did not discuss what to do. Regarding the wiretapping controversy, it sounds like he took a hard stand, with which I agree - Congress has known about it all along. (The Democrat leadership just suffered from selective amnesia when that story broke last December.) But the President announced some initiatives on the domestic front (competitiveness, education, and energy) which are bit weird sounding. I want to hear details. And he didn't score any points on Social Security reform.

As far as his energy proposals go - probably the only thing I am even remotely able to comment on - I'm going to read up on it more before I start talking about it, and maybe do a post on it later.

And, it sounds like the Democrats made fools of themselves during the speech, as did Cindy Sheehan. (No surprise on either score, really.)

But some people did watch, and their commentary can be found here and here.

Some highlights:

From National Review:

"Even at his most conciliatory, Bush continues to annoy all the right people."

From the Corner (on the Democratic response given by Gov. Kaine of Virginia):

HALF THE READING AUDIENCE WILL GET THIS ONE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
From a reader, on Kaine's eyebrow: "does The Rock know that Kaine stole his trademark facial expression?"

From QandO.net (Warning - Foul Language):

"'The state of the union is strong.' No president ever starts a SOTU with, 'Dudes, we're f***ed.' Well, except Jimmy Carter."