State of the Union--My Take Aways

Listening to and watching the State of the Union last night, I was struck by a couple of things about the President's speech.

First, while there were some aspects of agenda setting with a small laundry list of proposals, I think the President did a good job focusing on one or two things. When the President delivers a speech that is focused on a couple of topics, he is a much better speaker. He has the ability to explain to people the issues and his vocal delivery carries well when the speech is focused. I personally don't like SOTU speeches that are nothing but a long list of proposals that lack a thematic core.

Second, the President is getting better as speaking. His style is a little more polished and he appears to be more comfortable talking about programs and ideas. Previously his good speeches dealt more with concepts and values, but as should be expected, he has become more adept at dealing with details.

Third, he is visionary. The messages he has carried in public speechs, from before the campaign, through the election to now have been focused on what I call the long view. President Bush knows that he is not a detail man, but he has a vision and that vision is long-term. He knows that, barring some sort of negotiating miracle, there will not be Social Security reform this year, but he is forcing Congress and the American people to address an issue that is long term, somehting that neither Congress nor Americans are good at. President Bush is also pushing the growth of freedom and the expansion of liberal democracies across the world. This is not an easy task nor is it one that can be accomplished in the short run. Sure, one or two successes is a good building block, but you have to approach this task with a view to the distant future, not next year.

Being visionary doesn't mean you have to have the most original idea. I think most Americans and people across the world intuitively know that freedom is a good thing. But it takes vision to focus a nation on such an ideal for a long term.

Fourth, and finally, President Bush is clearly trying to govern a whole nation. Some of hte laundry list of issues he highlighted are clearly targeted to demographics that are not normally Republican--inner city youths, blacks and immigrants were all clearly targeted. Some on the left will call it pandering, but there is no doubt that young African American men face a crisis and the fact that a white Republican president chooses to focus, and prominently discuss, their problems is more attention than they would normally receive.

All in all a good speech. Light on the details, but most SOTU speeches are, there is simply not enough time to go into details.