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I am honored to be a part of the Townhall.com family of blogs and humbled by the talented writers and commentators featured in this forum. This site will focus primarily on national politics, but will expose media bias, examine pop culture, opine on Minnesota politics, and pontificate on sports as well.
 
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PRESIDENT BUSH'S State of the Union Address featured the President at his best. Serious in demeanor, he calmly laid out his agenda for the upcoming year. While the initiatives making up the first half of his speech were important the real meat was found in the sections on security and diplomacy. Security continues to be the main concern of this Administration, and with good reason.

Here, President Bush was firm and resolute, encouraging Senators to allow his new course of action in Iraq (Troop escalation in Baghdad and Anbar) an opportunity to work. On the diplomatic front, he rightly pointed out that terrorist groups took actions in 2006 designed to reverse democratic pushes of 2005 (Iraq, Lebanon, etc.).  Also, Bush showed his commitment to humanitarian causes in Africa, by pushing Congress to continue its efforts to fight HIV/AIDS as well as asking for $1.2B over the next five years to combat malaria on the continent. The President is clearly in his element when discussing security and diplomacy - I only wish he would do this more often!

On the other, less important, side, I especially liked his overview of the "jobless recovery" economy. We are currently through 41 consecutive months of expansion, have created 7M new jobs during that time, have seen wages increase and unemployment decrease. Hard to believe Democrats were so successful in painting a doom and gloom picture with those figures behind the GOP. The balancing of the federal budget within the next 5 years was popular on both sides of the aisle, but Democrats seemed skeptical of doing so without raising taxes. Earmark reform is a true crowd-pleaser, as is the preservation of entitlements (more on these in a later post, I'm sure).

Other topics included education (re-authorize "No Child Left Behind"), immigration (Look for ways to continue to enforce borders; deal with illegals already here "without animosity and amnesty"), energy (Reduce dependence upon foreign oil; "20/10-" reducing fossil fuel consumption by 20% in next 10 years; implement fuel efficiency standards similar to light trucks to all cars), and judges (Prompt up-or-down votes on federal appeals court judges in limbo). Camera views of Sens. Clinton and Leahy throughout the speech showed disinterest and sometimes, laughter.

All said, the speech was certainly vintage George W. Bush. He'll never be confused for a Reagan or a Clinton in how he can captivate an audience. However, his seriousness during these serious times offered a reassuring message. His ending quote, "The state of our Union is strong; our cause is right; and tonight, the cause goes on."