Bush's SOTU: Nixon Would Have Been Proud

From AlterNet:

Earlier yesterday, when asked by reporters what the best part of the speech was going to be, White House Spokesman Tony Snow replied, "You know, it's difficult to say. It's like looking in a drawer full of diamonds."

But those who were expecting some glittering bling-bling would have been disappointed; what made last night's SOTU noteworthy is that George W. Bush simply had nothing to say. It might have been the first time in American history.

Of course, everyone will pretend he said something important -- that it was a major address. The media will pick it apart and discuss its "significance"; lawmakers from both parties will quote bits and pieces of it to support or oppose this or that legislation; bloggers will remind us of what he said when he actually does the opposite and so on. But all you really need to know is that last night president George W. Bush could have come out on stage and, after pausing to let the ovation die down, he might have looked at the cameras with those beady little eyes and said, simply, "Folks, I got nothing. G'night!"

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Yeah, I don't even make an attempt to watch these things anymore, although I do regret missing Charlie Rangel reportedly laughing when Bush started talking about balancing the budget. But that just makes my point for me. It's all theater, and with Bush these days, it's not even very interesting theater. I suppose the SOTU right before the Iraq invasion was interesting, but that had more to do with what was so obviously on the line, and less to do with anything he was actually saying. Of course, in retrospect, those eleven or seventeen or whatever words about uranium and Niger have much more theatricality today, but, again, that has nothing to do with Bush himself. For all I know, he totally believed what his speech writers had fed him. Anyway, if anything, this latest state-of-the-union speech just drives home the reality that he's now a total lame duck. Nobody really believes his new bipartisan rap. I mean, after six years of sticking it to the Democrats, how can anybody take his hand of friendship seriously?

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