POL, responding to Bush's State of the Union address

Since Sen. Richard Durbin and Josh Marshall, publisher of Talking Points Memo, raved about Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union address, here it is.

Josh Marshall also recorded his own response to the State of the Union address. The comment I got from one of the people that watched the speech with me was that Bush seemed "desperate". Marshall identified this emotion too. Marshall's main analysis is that if one doesn't have coherent ideas it's impossible to craft a tight speech.

Capitol Fax Blog (Rich Miller) included Gov. Rod Blagojevich's response.

"President Bush’s plan to address the growing health care crisis in our country is disappointing. The plan he outlined tonight would do nothing to help the 1.4 million uninsured Illinoisans finally get access to coverage they can afford. In fact, his plan would discourage employers from offering quality healthcare coverage, could increase the number of uninsured and would mostly benefit the rich."

I think the point of the Bush health care proposal is to create the illusion of doing something about health care without antagonizing powerful interest groups. Credit goes to Blagojevich for explaining the shortcomings of the Bush proposal.

Durbin wrote his response on Daily Kos.

* The American people want change but the President still offers many of the same ideas he's been pushing for the last six years.
* Instead of a phased redeployment of US troops from Iraq, the President drew a line in the sand and defended his plan to send more American soldiers into the danger of a bloody civil war.
* Instead of a plan to make health care more affordable, the President is proposing a new health care tax on workers. His plan could actually reduce or eliminate health coverage for millions of Americans.
* I am heartened that the President is finally calling for meaningful fuel efficiency standards for cars and other vehicles and greater use of renewable fuels.

Durbin also made some points in the comments.

Webb"s comments really hit the nail on the head we not only need to promote good paying jobs; enforce trade agreements; and rewrite the tax code to discourage offshore profiteering, we have to elevate working people in our national forum. Today the way we finance campaigns leaves most working people behind in the Halls of Congress.

The Pres tonight gave us nothing new on Iraq.

Mary Landrieu [Dem Senator from Louisiana] warned us. The Pres gave Katrina 163 words last year. Zero this year. He wants to forget and we won't let him.

Rich Miller wrote the following about Sen. Barack Obama.

And, finally, did anyone else see Sen. Obama on TV last night? I caught him on CNN and MSNBC and his delivery seemed super-flat to me. It made me think that his attempt to move up the political ladder to the top rung has caused him to be too cautious, too hesitant to speak in his usual casual yet straightforward manner.

[UPDATE: WISC-TV (Madison, WI) fact checked the speech. Bush fudged some of the details that could be checked. If he fudged on the stuff that could be checked, how accurate do you think he was about his allegations about Iran, facts that can't be checked? How accurate was he about Iraq in 2002?]

"We are now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job growth, in a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs so far," Bush said.

A WISC-TV analysis found this statement "needs clarification."

[Bush doesn't count the job losses early in his administration. With that factored in, the true number of new jobs is 3.7 million.

(h/t Devilstower at Daily Kos)
One of the points Atrios, an economist and blogger, makes about job growth is that there are more people entering the workforce each month, more than the people retiring. So, the country can have an increase in the absolute number of jobs, but unemployment can be rising even faster.]