One eye on the SOTU, one eye on the live-blogging

I really dislike State of the Union speeches. It doesn’t make any difference what president is in office; it doesn’t make any difference what the actual state of the union is at the time. The wish lists that these speeches have become are dull, unnecesssary, and, I think, largely irrelevant. I did listen. Who knows? It could have been an exception. Although it was one of Bush’s best speeches ever it was still a State of the Union speech.

There was one moment of real drama when Safia Taleb al-Suhail, leader of the Iraqi Women’s Political Council and the Alliance for International Justice, turned to embrace Janet Norwood, the mother of Byron Norwood, a young marine who died in Fallujah. Mrs. Norwood then handed Ms. al-Suhail her son’s dogtag (according to some observers; my wife says no). I believe it was spontaneous and genuine. And it was very poignant. Steve Green’s comment said it for me:

If you’re not tearing up a little right now, you’re not watching. Again, words fail. Back in 90 seconds.

While I listened to the president with one ear and watched with one eye I found what live-blogging I could from both hemispheres of the blogosphere and followed them as well. The live-blogging I followed included Vodkapundit, Instapundit, Captain’s Quarters, Power Line Blog, Questions and Answers Blog, Tigerhawk, and Kevin Drum at The Washington Monthly. I sincerely tried to find more live-blogging from the left side of the blogosphere but I came a cropper.

Glenn Reynolds sums up:

NICE JOB. The inaugural was OK, which for Bush is a success. This, on the other hand, was actually good, making it Bush’s best speech ever, I think. He seems much more comfortable and relaxed, probably because of the Iraqi elections going so well. I think we’re just figuring out just how much the Administration’s plans turned on that. He bet on the Iraqi people, and he won.

Cap’n Ed:

A terrific and inspiring finish to one of George Bush’s best policy speeches. It doesn’t have the soaring vision of his inaugural, but — it’s not an inauguration, when one expects that. This speech is part road map, part halftime pep speech. He’s much improved over last year, and I think he gets better every year he’s in office. He may never be considered a great orator (for good reason), but he delivers some of the best political speeches since Reagan.

In this case, he kept the thread of freedom going throughout the entire hour, including the domestic section. Freedom will be his great theme, just as the New Deal was FDR’s or the Great Society was LBJ’s. W’s will be the Force of Human Freedom.

Hindrocket:

On the whole, an excellent job. Bush came out swinging on the two key issues: Social Security and the benefits of the war in Iraq. As usual, the President is his own best spokesman. He made the Social Security case well, but punted, essentially, on the transition issue. For now, though, that’s probably the right approach. Sell people on the need for and desirability of change, then work with Congress on the details. And on Iraq, he was impassioned and effective. The embrace between the Iraqi activist and Mrs. Norwood was powerfully emotional and symbolic, summing up at once the sacrifice, the purpose and the progress of the Iraq war. And reminding us that the military is overwhelmingly behind this President.

Dale Franks:

The President was very much on, tonight. And, finally, he wore a red power tie, instead of that awful poweder blue monstrosity he’s so prone to wearing.

One got the dominant impression that he was less interested in laying out a laundry list of legislation that most SOTUs contain. He sped through that stuff, in order to get to Social Security and the War on Terror.

Tigerhawk:

I repeat the Official TigerHawk SOTU insight, which I have not seen on any of the liveblogging so far: We deliberately did not hammer on North Korea because we are sending the signal that they should come back to the six party talks. Contrast the bit about North Korea with the figurative bombing of Syria and Iran.

I found Kevin Drum’s summation quite gracious:

The domestic half of the speech seemed fairly pedestrian and flat. The foreign affairs half was often soaring and beautiful. Overall a decent speech, although I doubt he changed many minds about Social Security privatization.

As far as the Democratic response went, Nancy Pelosi didn’t creep me out nearly as much as last year. I must be getting used to her. Quite lifelike, actually.