Posted on 02/02/2005 2:48:31 PM PST by GretchenM
President Bush will deliver his annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress tonight at 6 PM Pacific time. A live webcast is available here. According to CNN, quoting a top aide, "President Bush will present 'a strategy for success' in Iraq and outline details of his Social Security proposal."
Judge Michael Chertoff testified during his nomination to become Homeland Security Secretary before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
President Bush plans a late February trip to Europe to seek additional assistance from the European Union and NATO in Iraq, and to meet with leaders, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
There will be lots of photos tonight during and after the president's speech.
Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island!
I'm jealous, LOL! Los Angeles is (rightfully so) flyover country for GWB. As for your 2nd question, the President, First Lady and daughter Barbara all left the WH together aboard Marine 1 this morning.
Gasp, indeed. Media know-it-alls always have something to day about everything. Much of what they say is pure bull crap. But being a media talking head apparently means you never have to acknowledge a mistake.
I channel surf after the president gives a speech( Except at the inauguration..I let no one spoil my celebration)..I missed the speech live and I had caught Ron jrs comment just before watching the replay...
Later I watched the replay of Chris to see how bad he was. Chris was worse than Ronjr..and that is really, really bad. I was shocked when he also said it was a great speech..but the "staged hug " accusation was made, not once, but several times.
But after they got off Mairne 1, the Pres. and Laura kissed and it looked like she was walking in another direction, like to her airplane. I didn't see him/them get on AF1 so don't know for sure . . .
Nebraska is usually fly-over country too, but Ben Nelson is apparently a Democrat the Pres. thinks might be enticed to be on his side with the Soc. Sec. issues.
I'm taking the digital camera tomorrow and would be glad to share pictures if I get some good ones; I don't know how to post them, but if I could e-mail them to you I'd "let" you post them--HAHA! If you're comfortable sharing your email address I'll send them to you. (I promise I won't start sending you a bunch of stupid jokes or anything like that).
You are correct.
I have often wondered if this was a mild side effect of medication he takes for his heart condition.
In any case, he looked wonderful and -- like the President -- very happy last night. Today, the VP seems to be working talk radio on behalf of their initiative on Social Security. He was on the Rush Limbaugh show around 9:30am, or so, local time. (If you're not familiar with him, Rush is the foremost talk radio personality in the U.S., and a leader in the conservative movement.) If I can find a trascript later, I'll post it for you.
Rush happened to mention the "staged hug" accusation this morning. Bitter Leftists simply cannot bring themselves to even enjoy the power of such a moment. Why? It means our beloved Dubya was right, and their Leftists nostrums are junk. So they even try to discredit that which simply cannot be discredited.
Snugs, your dad is right. Those military men are the members of our Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Chief of Staff of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, plus the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.) Because our Commander-in-Chief is the civilian President of the U.S., the Joint Chiefs always are strictly non-partisan. By tradition, they never applaud any SOTU passage that is political, or one that relates to any government policy. They will applaud for passages related to the military, and to any other passage that is clearly non-partisan. One example of the latter is when the President honored the parents of a New York City police officer who died in the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01.
I'll be happy to post the photos for you, if you get some you want to share. See FReemail.
Well done congratulations
What a wonderful commentary on the SOTU speech, Wolfstar. It was almost like being there again.
I am such a W admirer (adorer might be closer, LOL) that I often think I probably cannot get a genuine read on his speeches. I think they're all great.
It was obvious that this speech last night had a very different purpose than the Inaugural speech. This speech was a tablesetter for the next four years, a prologue that sets the agenda of his second Presidency. Each and every part of that speech had a purpose, a group or groups it was talking to. As such, it often didn't have the kind of soaring visionary rhetoric that the Inaugural speech did. But the question is, did it serve its purpose? I'm thinking it did, and did it BEAUTIFULLY. This man is so much in command, so certain of where he is going, and so humble in his leadership, how could any right-thinking American hear that speech and not go with him? Or right-thinking citizen of the world, for that matter.
I was heartened to hear Rush say today that this SOTU speech was the best speech he had ever heard Bush give. Rush is a Bush fan, obviously, but he does not praise anybody's speeches to that degree unless he means it. And I think he has the perspective to judge the speech, so that means something to me.
Another tidbit for those of you who didn't hear it: I was interested in Chris Wallace's comments last night with Brit Hume about the media anchor's luncheon that day. He was describing how totally in command the President now is, how sure of himself, how much a leader, how he is in total command of every issue and argument and can articulate his reasoning very well. He described his awe (as I saw it) at how much George Bush has grown within the Presidency during the last four years. Brit also talked about how W had handled Dan Rather at the luncheon. Basically, Brit said that W was a better man than he would have been in the situation.
How low are those scum-sucking Dems to pull the childish disrupting tactics that they pulled? And how stupid, because no right-thinking American could countenance that. I hope those people who did are named, and their behavior put out there for all to see. I swear, when you've sold your soul to George Soros and moveon.org, there's no honor or independence of any kind left.
I agree with you. Last night's speech was an excellent table-setter for the next four years. But the speech didn't need exquisite rhetoric in order to be beautiful. This was a speech for which the visuals were more powerful than most of the words.
Homemom -- update on where the First Lady went. She's sitting in on a class entitled 'Passport to Manhood' during an appearance at the Boys and Girls Club of Germantown in Philadelphia. She's beginning her initiative to encourage schools and social services to focus more on the needs of boys.
Snugs, you're right. Both the President and the VP looked like they were enjoying themselves last night. The VP had a smile on his face the whole time up until W started speaking, then he looked serious, but still like he was enjoying himself. I didn't see the part where he was looking for a piece of candy.
I often think that Dick Cheney has a sort of prideful fatherly look around W, like he is watching a son that he is enormously proud of. Then I remember that they're almost the same age, not the right ages to be father and son at all. When you hear Cheney talk, he always defers to the President, rightly so. But he is also enormously proud of George Bush too, I think. I suspect in their private interactions they treat each other very much as equals.
I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall at some of their private meetings, just to see how their private interaction works, and how it might be different from their public interaction. I just think that the relationship between these two is a fascinating relationship, one that will go down in history along with the Bush presidency, IMO. It's partly fascinating because both the actors in it are fascinating people. They're both very genuine and in some ways simple men, but both very deep. Also, because the history of the world will be changed enormously by this Presidency.
What were the envelopes that W gave to Cheney and Hastert before his speech? Just official copies of the speech. Did you notice the names on the outside were handwritten?
By the way, wasn't Laura just gorgeous last night? I know we have seen her beautiful before, but she was just stunning last night.
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