So I watched the State of the Union address and I must say that all I could come away with saying was, well at least he’s not John Kerry cause that would be worse. I mean I simply was not impressed and of course I will detail the reasons why. On some things he talked OK, but offered little or no substance and on some things he did offer details for I didn’t like the details. I like many other Conservatives voted for Bush out of desperation of no other good choice being available. So my expectations were low and unfortunately Bush’s delivery was on par with my expectations.

He did speak about some good things at the start. About this being the 41st month of continuous job growth and 7.2 million jobs during recovery from the economic issues left by former President Bill Clinton on top of 9/11. Bush could still meet or beat Kerry’s old 10 million jobs promise.

Bush accurately mentioned that more enterprise, not more government is what keeps the economy in a positive direction.

The President mentioned he wants to expose all earmarks and cut them in half. That sounds good. We just have to hope Congress agrees, his cronies included.

He said let’s fix Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, but offered no details of how to do it. Maybe it’s coming in his forthcoming budget proposal? But I felt like Bush was simply a politician giving a stump speech that was full of hype and short on the substance. It’s as empty as Steve Munsey’s promises of a “double portion” blessing if you just send him your seed offering. Except with government they actually force the money out of your pocket while making empty promises, instead of simply scamming you into giving up the money willingly. Nothing has been done to “fix” Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and we could even say Bush made it worse. Given with Bush nothing has shrunk, only grew. And he’s gone silent on private accounts for Social Security.

While the federal government probably should not be so involved in what states do regarding education, he mentioned some good things. He said we should increase student school achievement without lowering standards. I agree, keeping the bar high and only raising it is always best. He also said:

We can lift student achievement even higher by giving local leaders flexibility to turn around failing schools, and by giving families with children stuck in failing schools the right to choose someplace better.

As in, people in a free country should have the freedom to choose a different school for their children without jumping through flaming hoops. With Bush’s plan your kid has to be at a terrible school that has already hit rock bottom before you can choose. Bush is a lame duck, what does he have to lose? He could have demanded better regarding “choice” when it comes to schools.

Once he got into the issue of illegal immigration we saw Bush is just as weak as ever. He again mentioned his idea for a temporary worker program, which is nothing but part of his amnesty efforts. He said it would will stop people from sneaking in and only leave drug runners and terrorists trying to cross into America illegally. Sorry Mr. President, but I am not an idiot. Your program does not close the borders to illegals and your offers only inspire more illegal immigration, not less. Which makes it even harder for border patrol agents to catch drug runners and terrorists. And Mr. President, how exactly do our BP agents apprehend those drug runners and terrorists if your people lock them up when they do give chase and take measures to defend themselves when they feel they are in danger?

He gave a vague statement about illegal aliens already in America when saying:

We need to resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country without animosity and without amnesty.

All Bush has offered are forms of amnesty. And given he offered no other details in his speech, it’s obvious he’s going to push for just that with the person he’s proud to call “Madam Speaker”.

He did promote using nuclear power. I like that. I think it’s the way to go. (For the sake of full disclosure I do hold a stake in that industry, which I took up because I believe in it.)

Bush proposed to reduce gasoline usage by 20% in the next 10 years. Yea right! He wants to increase fuel efficiency standards, but I think 10 years from now we’ll be using plenty of gasoline, more than now. Because like it or not the fossil fuels still give the most bang for the buck and while Bush did mention we need to drill domestically the Democrats in Congress won’t allow it. He should have told “Madam Speaker” we’ll get off the Middle East oil when she allows us to drill somewhere else.

President Bush mentioned confronting the issue of “Global Climate Change” as if it’s man made. He’s drinking the Al Gore Kool-Aid!!! Bush is ignoring that our weather changes are a proven natural cycle beyond man’s control.

As this point in the speech all you can say is he’s pretty Liberal, but he’s better than that other guy from that other party who wanted the job.

Bush did ask for a fair up or down vote for judges he nominates. At least he asked for it, although we know the Democrats won’t allow it. If he gives away the farm on everything else there’s still hope if we can keep the judiciary abuse down.

He says there is no higher priority than to protect Americans from danger, but he’s not properly addressing the border! It was another line of fluff.

Bush did mention that to win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy. Yes! Now stop playing like war can be fought in a nice way. Instead of mentioning he was sending more troops to Iraq he should have proposed sending more bombs to help the guys already there.

The President was able to list some of the accomplishments in foiling terrorist plots.

Our success in this war is often measured by the things that did not happen. We cannot know the full extent of the attacks that we and our allies have prevented, but here is some of what we do know: We stopped an al Qaeda plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the tallest building on the West Coast. We broke up a Southeast Asian terror cell grooming operatives for attacks inside the United States. We uncovered an al Qaeda cell developing anthrax to be used in attacks against America. And just last August, British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up passenger planes bound for America over the Atlantic Ocean. For each life saved, we owe a debt of gratitude to the brave public servants who devote their lives to finding the terrorists and stopping them.

And there have been lots of other terrorist plots that were caught. More than even those I tracked here. Did you know news of another terrorist plot just broke today? Hat tip to Tony for that last link.

Later in the speech Bush mentioned we are “still a nation at war”, but he still won’t close the borders to illegal entry! If we are a nation at war, let’s act like it at home.

He mentioned Iran and the threat of Hezbollah. But I don’t think Bush is really going to do anything about Iran, although he should. It’s going to be the old hope Israel handles it approach. While we know folks from Iran are causing us trouble in Iraq.

Bush proposed to grow the military, good idea.

He pledged to support calls for change in Cuba, which is good.

The President also pledge to work to save the people of Darfur. He offered no details on how to accomplish this, given the many failed efforts after trying to work with international bodies like the United Nations. Agreements keep being made and broken. And Bush totally failed to not connect Darfur with Islamists and terrorism. Which is why the USA should have an interest in the issues in the Sudan.

Bush said nothing about the military strikes in Somalia. Although they were not as successful as hoped, I feel he should have mentioned it as a warning to our enemies.

Regarding AIDS and malaria in Africa, Bush proposes to throw money at it. Reports both new and old are showing that circumcision helps reduce the spread of AIDS. Is Bush going to try supporting it? It’s been a known method for many years now and finally more of the medical community agrees. We keep throwing money at parts of Africa to stop a problem that is mostly an issue of morality, but given circumcision works better than any vaccine we might as well press for it. The message of morality can also be spread. Regarding malaria, many African nations could better help themselves if Bush simply asked to remove some of the regulations that hurt them. If people in parts of Africa were simply trained in how to give circumcisions and allowed to spray DDT in their anti-malaria rotation, they could better help themselves and Bush would not have to try throwing more of our money at them.

Bush said absolutely nothing to help defend babies in the womb. (Notice the counter on the lower left of this page is getting close to an estimated 5 million babies killed - via abortion - since our troops entered Iraq.)

So there’s my take on the speech. Politically speaking it’s going to be a long couple of years. I’m just happy I have Jesus. Because I still have peace even when I see my President messing things up.