By JJ Bowman
News Editor
We were privileged to witness two great spectacles this week. First, the Super Bowl promised a great match-up as the No. 1 offense in football squared off against the league’s best defense.
That game may have flopped, but the week’s second great event, the president’s annual State of the Union address, exceeded the hype.
With the exception of Election Day, no political event offers more juice for the political junkie’s palate than the State of the Union. The president takes an hour of the nation’s attention to list his fantasy projects for the American people and only gets interrupted by applause. The other party, on the other hand, gets a rebuttal that is only interrupted when the speaker has to clear his throat.
The platform could not be more unfair to the opposition. It’s like two prize fighters going at it when one is tied to a chair with his hands behind his back.
After Republicans cornered Bill Clinton with the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998, the president eluded their grasp days later when he delivered a State of the Union. Clinton promised Americans the world, and all Republicans could do is clap softer.
These were some of my favorite moments from Tuesday night’s address.
Before any talk of Iraq, the president said the first car a child born today drives could be powered by hydrogen, instead of gas. As a man characterized by a thirst for Texas tea in an administration with the likes of former oil tycoon Dick Cheney, this seemed like a peculiar pledge of $1.2 billion. But what are the Democrats going to do, boo clean energy?
The president then took to the greatest humanitarian cause of our generation – the extermination, or at least reduction, of AIDS in Africa. Although the endeavor has sparked the interest of Bill Gates, politicians had not yet jumped at this opportunity for international compassion — until Bush promised to increase spending by more than 30 times to help the afflicted continent.
After showing his compassion, Bush showed his might. After saying how many terrorists were now incarcerated, he pulled out a line that would have made Luca Brasi proud.
“Many others (in terrorist networks) have met a different fate,” Bush said. “Let’s put it this way; they are no longer a problem for the United States and our friends and allies.”
Does anyone else have the feeling that after he read that line to his administration before the speech, several cabinet members raised their six-shooters, fired away and screamed “YEEEE-HAW!”?
With the opposition down before they could even react, Bush went for the jugular. Saddam, he said, tortured his people with rape, electric drills and acid on the skin. He also hides al Qaeda terrorists and has his own intelligence officers pose as scientists who must interview with weapons inspectors, the president continued.
Bush closed by saying, “If war is forced upon us, we will fight with the full force and might of the United States military — and we will prevail.”
The Democrats had Washington Gov. Gary Locke rebut the speech — apparently Walter Mondale was busy — and then relied on Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to take their message to the pundits. Kennedy was a little less comprehensible than the Dell Computer Guy and slightly more appealing than Subway’s Jared.
So what did we learn this week? Defense wins championships and presidents win State of the Union addresses.
January 30, 2003