While much of the President’s State of the Union speech was pedantic and lacking in the raw rhetorial punch of previous Bush SOTU’s, the closing was amazing; the Norwood moment and the President’s conclusion were the lofty, powerful photo and prose, respectively, that will move him forward again in public opinion.
Significantly, and which should be a big subhead, were Bush’s comments about freedom and its relationship to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iran and others. Very significant — and a continuing thread from the Inaugural speech. Nice move.
The Social Security pitch was sufficient but the combat will continue around the 50 yard line.
The Harry Reid/Nancy Pelosi "response" was pathetic — solipsistic wax figures melting in the spotlight of the bigtime. Andrew Sullivan said "vapid". Exactly.
In other notes: Trent Lott was particularly effective in his Hardball interview with Chris Matthews; he had the confidence in his eye so lacking in the past months since he was chopped down in the ritualistic DC manner.
Chris Matthews dissed the lovely Laura Ingraham when he said "the grownups will now stay" when she departed after the first segment, leaving just Howard Fineman and Joe Scarborough.
By far, the best analysis duo was on CNN, with Paul Begala and Torie Clarke, two of the coolest, best people in the DC political/media scene. In fact, since Crossfire is cancelled, allow DCSpectator to be the first to suggest a show with Paul and Torie. Their chemistry and analysis worked in a complementary manner. Get them on the air on their own show.