President Bush spoke of “decisive days that lie ahead” in his final State of the Union Address Monday. Throughout the speech, though, he revealed his ignorance of the decisive days that have already passed. On matters of foreign, domestic and economic policy the president appeared dangerously out of touch with reality.
Trying to put a bright face on bad news, Bush lauded Palestinians for “choosing a new direction” by electing Mahmoud Abbas three years ago. He neglected to mention the civil war between Abbas’ Fatah militia and its rival Hamas that tears Palestine apart and hamstrings the peace process, and the thousands of Palestinians who poured into Egypt from a hole in the Gaza border last week. Bush omitted these disasters even though he recently toured the region. In the Middle East, as elsewhere, Bush displayed a reckless tunnel vision.
On the domestic front, Bush spoke of “armies of compassion” reconstructing New Orleans, completely disregarding the malaise that still grips the city. He called for a renewal and strengthening of the No Child Left Behind Act even though states across the country are attempting to move away from it, and tried to sneak school vouchers into the federal budget under the misleading, even comical name “Pell Grants for Kids.”
The President’s aides had touted economic policy as the focus of the speech for days beforehand. Bush did talk about his “economic stimulus package” and other moves to combat a recession—which he referred to as “a period of uncertainty”—but these fixes are too little, too late. It was as if the President woke up on Monday morning and realized that Americans were having their homes repossessed and losing their jobs, even though economic growth last year had slowed to its lowest level since 2002, according to the Associated Press.
President Bush had a unique opportunity to own up to his mistakes and offer some solutions for them in his final State of the Union. He had nothing to lose politically, and could’ve used the speech to accurately reflect on his time in office. Instead, Bush chose to flaunt his administration’s greatest weakness: a complete disregard for reality.
