Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
We tried to do a live blog of the State of the Union address at the Michigan Messenger, but had some technical difficulties. As always when listening to such speeches, I am reminded of HL Mencken's brilliant description of the rhetoric of Warren Harding. It applies just as perfectly to all such speeches today:
It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the top most pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.
The most ridiculous part for me was all the talk about fiscal responsibility - from the man who presided over the most profligate borrow-and-spend administration in history for 6 years. Now that the Democrats control Congress, he's suddenly discovered the evils of earmarks. Did anyone hear one word about earmarks from him between 2001 and 2007, when the Republicans controlled both branches of government and they were spending like drunken sailors?
He demanded that spending on earmarks be cut in half. But since half those earmarks come from Republicans, it's not hard to guess which half he wants cut. This line also provoked dark laughter on my part:
"As we explore promising avenues of research, we must also ensure that all life is treated with the dignity it deserves."
Right. Because as his administration demands that private security contractors who gun down Iraqis be given total immunity from Iraqi law, he's treating all life with the dignity it deserves. Because when his henchmen arrest innocent Canadian citizens and fly them to Syria so they can be tortured for months on end, he's treating all life with the dignity that it deserves.
I don't know how any thinking human being could deliver that speech with a straight face. I don't know how any thinking human being could take such blatantly dishonest, empty and hypocritical rhetoric seriously. It is, indeed, balder and dash.
Comments
The problem is that Mr. Bush is not a thinking human being.
Posted by: SLC | January 29, 2008 9:33 AM
I didn't listen to the whole thing, but I caught a bit while driving around.
I literally burst out laughing when I heard him say (presumably with a straight face), "A free Iraq will be a friend to America."
Posted by: Squiddhartha | January 29, 2008 9:56 AM
Regarding fiscal responsibility, perhaps the point he's making is: 'Us Republicans have demonstrated we can't be trusted with the people's scratch so it's going to have to be up to, like, the Democrats. I mean, we pretty much proved that Clinton balanced the budget and passed on a surplus in spite of a Republican Congress, OK, not because of it. Ya know?'
Naaa. Christ, what a dim dick.
Posted by: tsynnott | January 29, 2008 10:51 AM
That HL Mencken quote is fabulous.
Posted by: David C. Brayton | January 29, 2008 10:53 AM
Thanks for the Mencken quote. I'll have to add it to my file. The only redeeming feature of the SotU was that it got Tweety Matthews to shut up for the better part of an hour.
Posted by: Pieter B | January 29, 2008 11:56 AM
Or how about when he talks about upholding the Constitution as he tries to pass legislation for wire taps that violates one of its most essential principles of privacy? It is amazing to me how these guys get up there and talk about the Constitution and then go to work the next day to destroy it!
Posted by: King of Ireland | January 29, 2008 1:28 PM
This president assumes at least 1/2 of the GOP is not paying attention beyond what he states. Karl Rove's strategy depended upon it and was proven correct.
If you listened to this speech in a vacuum, being totally ignorant of all that has transpired in terms of his actual actions, you'd think this was a reasonable man and a great leader. It is the context of the speech which makes it so ridiculous.
I believe we deserve this type of President and will continue to elect people like him unless we radically change the attentiveness and educational level of the people themselves, a doable project though I'm skeptical it will happen in this generation.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 29, 2008 4:48 PM
Could not bring myself to watch it. I saw the last seven, and I'm tired of the guy trying to defend his failed domestic and international policies and lie out his teeth in that damn voice of his.
Posted by: JakeS | January 29, 2008 6:25 PM
Straight face? Did you see the number of times he had that smirk on his face?
Posted by: soboco | January 29, 2008 8:57 PM
The operative phrase there is "the dignity it deserves." Clearly these people didn't deserve any dignity--they were probably brown or something.
Posted by: Skemono | January 29, 2008 9:15 PM
As for me, when he said that this was the last time he'd be making this speech, I cheered.
I'm 47; I've made a point of listening to SOU addresses since I was about 20 or so. This is the first one I simply couldn't stand to hear. I knew from the get-go that it would be full of lies, bluster, and great glistening lumps of stupid. And I just couldn't stand it: There in the kitchen, serving dinner to my kids, I swiftly reached over and popped an Art Tatum CD into the box.
Ahhh.
We were all happier for the cleanliness.
In our local paper (the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer", one of two dailies, actually) a columnist dwelled on Helen Thomas's characterization of GWB as Worst. President. Ever., and I've had some discussions with friends about this. I'm willing to put him in top three, but worst ever? That's some stiff competition.
Maybe this merits a new thread: worst president ever - is George it?
Posted by: Josh Hayes | January 30, 2008 1:36 AM
Who would you put above him?
Posted by: Skemono | January 30, 2008 2:27 AM
Definitely Warren Harding.
And in 19 C, what about Rutherford Hayes?
Posted by: John Monfries | January 30, 2008 9:19 PM
I think this is very good idea, but I am affraid but not for me
Posted by: sex shop | April 4, 2009 8:43 AM