State of the Union?

I had several half composed entries from just after the State of the Union speech. As a work of fiction it’s a beautiful thing but, do we expect the State of the Union to be a work of fiction?

There was some talk about halving the budget deficit by ’09, by which time Junior will be just out of office and therefore hardly accountable for his promise so, I view the statement as somewhat empty. Besides, what would the alternative be, more time in office? The horror!

My one thought listening to the State of the Union was there should be some kind of broad urging up front for all the members of Congress to hold their applause to after the speech. If they did that, they could spare us all the onus of having to spend an hour on listening to a speech that would run about 20 minutes without the interruptions. 20 minutes was about all the speech was worth anyway, nothing new as much as more of the same. It was a speech of flavor but little substance leaving the listener hungry and unsatiated afterward.

I think the best measure of a man is his words and under the circumstances it is best to measure our current Chief Executive. If you would argue for or against his time in office, I would suggest taking the time out to read his previous State of the Union speeches and then using them as a measure for what he has in fact accomplished during his time in office. It makes for fascinating reading if you have the time and will give one a wealth of ammunition in any political discussion.

State of the Union 2001 here.

State of the Union 2002 here.

State of the Union 2003 here.

State of the Union 2004 here.

State of the Union 2005 here.