The State of the Campaign Address 

President Bush managed to deliver a State of the Union address that (instead of the constitutional mandated assessment of the country’s status) included a lecture on the state of his presidential campaign and lacked the messages that a country with a number of domestic problems needs.

Even with the coaching of his staff, Mr. Bush delivered a pointless pep talk full of campaign propaganda totally unrelated to his administration’s initiatives to address current domestic problems. And, once again, he missed the mark by not focusing on problems (like an ineffective health care system, a struggling economy, and a growing older population without a way to finance long term care cost that have a real impact in the lives of the citizens of this country.

Mr. Bush was unapologetic (and even defiant) about taking the country to war, sacrificing innocent American and Iraqi lives, and spending Social Security and Medicare dollars to finance his hunt for weapons of mass destruction. During his sermon, he (very skillfully) sidestepped the fact that neither United Nations inspectors nor American troops were able to find the weapons Iraq allegedly had. And with a quick change of direction, Mr. Bush managed to substitute Iraq with Libya and Hussein with Kadafi to pronounce his mission accomplished and a victory for the administration.

But we shouldn’t be surprised of Mr. Bush’s quick-switch tricks. He has done this for years with domestic issues, putting health care and a soon-to-be-bankrupt Social Security system under his sleeve while enthusiastically waiving the administration’s war efforts in front of a mesmerized American audience. Wake up!

It’s time we realized that we are the ones financing this administration, and if the country should go into deficit spending, it should be to pay for medical care and the welfare of our citizens, not wars or election campaign advertisement.