I was thoroughly unimpressed with Bush’s State of the Union address this evening. Again he was more focused on the poorly performing war on terror and illegal wiretapping than on anything substantive. It was the same old rhetoric we’ve heard from his speeches the last four years. Where is his vision, where is the leadership? It’s apparently his plan to continue his failed policies that have gotten him some of the worst approval ratings of any president.
Of course the Democrats completely screwed up their response. I completely agree with The New Republic on their assesment:
True, the selection of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to deliver the rebuttal to tonight’s State of the Union address probably wasn’t a brilliant move. As the liberal blogosphere has already noted, selecting a man who’s held his current office for all of two weeks seems a bit, well, unwise. Even Republicans must be starting to get frustrated that Democrats continue to be so feckless.
What were they thinking of choosing this guy? He hasn’t been in office long enough to prove he can do anything yet. He lacked charisma and energy to me. He may have been clearer in his message, but I certainly didn’t feel inspired after hearing it.
Maybe some day the Democrats will get a clue and capitalize on a situation that should have voters running to them in droves.
Yes, yes, yes… but Bush only referred to evil twice, and did not even talk about evildoers once! That’s impressive.
I liked the comment about hindsight not being wisdom, because I do think the dems are confusing the two.
At the same time, it’s funny to hear a repub who dragged us into a war on faulty intel define wisdom.
Frankly, I feel optionless at the moment.
Tim Kaine’s predecessor, Mark Warner, is a Democrat.
just a quick hint–Kaine’s predecessor was Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat and a 2008 presidential candidate.
Hi.
I agree with what you had to say about the address tonight; a little more than a typical chop suey of recycled platitudes and empty cliches.
However, it disappoints me when people come to a cynical general consensus about something without any real foundation. There is no need to bash on Virginia governor Tim Kaine. I think he did a fine job articulating the objectives of the democratic party. No, he may not have Bush’s make-up team, but he spoke with a hell of a lot more clarity on key issues. That’s democrat; objective and to the point about what really matters.
And for your information, Tim Kaine served as Lieutenant governor up until now. He is a significant icon because he won an intense race in a red state. And his predecessor was democratic, not republican. His name is Mark Warner, he was named by TIME magazine as #1 among America’s best governors, and he is running for presidential nomination in 2008.
Kaine’s predecessor, Mark Warner, was/is a notable Democrat who is likely seeking a candidacy for U.S. Presidential Elections in 2008.
I agree about Bush’s speech, but thought that Tim Kaine did a pretty good job of sounding centrist which seemed pretty smart to me on a day as full of Democratic loss as today was. I was glad that he didn’t let Bush have some sort of magical monopoly on all things spiritual. I thought his “bedside manner” was a little bit stiff and strange, but after Bush’s speech where he had so much fun being a puppeteer making only one side of the room stand up, I thought Kaine did a pretty good job talking about some things both sides want, and things most people can agree on.
Sorry about the mistake regarding Kaine’s predecessor. I was confusing that with the republican dominated state congress.
However I still stand by my opinion that Kaine was a horrible choice. He’s a political unknown and was far from inspiring or energetic. Yes, he was clearer, but I was not moved by him. Give me someone with conviction, energy, and real charisma with name recognition like Senators Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton not a brand new, untested Governor whom normal Americans don’t even know. Kaine to me was just too stiff and lacked emotion.
The Dems biggest problem honestly is a charisma problem. Look at their last two candidates for President. Neither of them had the same charisma as say Reagan or Clinton. They may make a better argument at times, but you need to win over the American people’s hearts and inspire them.
And unless Virginia is different than just about every other state in the nation the Lt. Governor is pretty much a ceremonial position so I’m not impressed by that. Even though his predecessor was a Democrat, it was still not Gov. Kaine doing the work. But just to be clear, I’m not attacking him as a person nor the job he may do as Governor, just the fact that he’s untested as Governor and an unknown outside of Virginia or the political intelligentsia and a very weak choice in the end for the Dems to choose as the deliverer of their rebuttal.
I may be wrong, but I doubt it. We’ll just have to wait a day or two to see what the poll numbers say.