Cynical Speech Highlights Sad State of the Union
By Joe Conason

If America’s need for substantial leadership were not so grave, we might find some dark amusement in George W. Bush’s latest attempt to escape his own political quagmire. Sinking to Nixonian levels of public distrust and disdain in most polls, and facing a Democratic Congress, he tried to shift the focus to health care, climate change and educational reform in his annual address to Congress.

As his Presidency enters its twilight years, Mr. Bush evidently wishes he could revisit the sunny days of “compassionate conservatism,” when gauzy proposals and happy talk so easily beguiled so many voters.

His problem is that we have heard all this before, and we know him too well by now.

Every year in his State of the Union address, he feigns deep concern over the same issues that he emphasized this year. He always urges independence from foreign oil, rapid development of alternative-energy sources, effective use of conservation and improvement of the environment. (Remember his “switch grass” biofuel program from last year?) He always promises more affordable health care that will become available to more of the uninsured and their children. He always says that public education must be made more effective and higher education should be made more affordable.

The chances are that few, if any, of the proposals advertised in his speech will actually arrive on Capitol Hill as legislation—or that he will even bother to mention them again, unless he recycles the same ideas next year. For most of these programs and promises are old half-measures, with little saliency and even less support. They are desperate cries for approval from a President who has permanently forfeited the popularity he once brandished like a weapon.
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