Wednesday, February 01, 2006
The President did a decent job last night. It wasn't his most impressive, soaring rhetoric--a fact that has been beaten to death by the media--but you don't always need high-flying ideals. Clinton's speeches were all masterpieces, yet he never really said anything. I was disappointed that Bush didn't push harder for his domestic agenda, choosing instead to relive past glories in the foreign affairs field. Nevertheless, as I believe I've mentioned before, foreign policy really is the glory of the man mocked in 2000 for his supposed ignorance of world leaders. As he said last night, "Second-guessing is not a strategy." He vowed to hold the line on Iran and North Korea. It wasn't his best speech but he did all right. And compared to Virginia's governor, he was downright professional. Good grief, someone over at Dems-R-Us headquarters must be smashing their head against the wall. The whole time I was watching the response speech, I was sure I'd seen the guy before...on used car commericals from Rochester. He really needs to shave that left eyebrow and maybe draw one on. But the worse people they trot out to respond, the better it is for us.
Hillary was obviously angling for the spotlight last night--I was kind of surprised she wasn't chosen to deliver the Democrats' response. Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking about 2008 and who should carry the Republican banner. If polls tell the truth, two men stand a good chance of beating Hillary very handily--John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. In fact, polls are now saying that even a majority of New Yorkers prefer Giuliani to Hillary. I'm torn on the whole idea of John McCain. On so many things--defense in particular, but also immigration--he'd be good. But he's not entirely committed to tax cuts, he'll be 72 in 2008, and he's rather liberal on moral issues. The same could be said of Giuliani. As for Pataki, I really hope he's not the man. The Senators running are all nobodies. But I guess what it comes down to in the end is that I will vote for the Republican candidate because that person is not Hillary. Of course, if somehow, someway it ended up being a contest between, say, Joseph Lieberman and John McCain, it would be hard to resist voting for the Democrat. It should be an interesting race.
Hillary was obviously angling for the spotlight last night--I was kind of surprised she wasn't chosen to deliver the Democrats' response. Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking about 2008 and who should carry the Republican banner. If polls tell the truth, two men stand a good chance of beating Hillary very handily--John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. In fact, polls are now saying that even a majority of New Yorkers prefer Giuliani to Hillary. I'm torn on the whole idea of John McCain. On so many things--defense in particular, but also immigration--he'd be good. But he's not entirely committed to tax cuts, he'll be 72 in 2008, and he's rather liberal on moral issues. The same could be said of Giuliani. As for Pataki, I really hope he's not the man. The Senators running are all nobodies. But I guess what it comes down to in the end is that I will vote for the Republican candidate because that person is not Hillary. Of course, if somehow, someway it ended up being a contest between, say, Joseph Lieberman and John McCain, it would be hard to resist voting for the Democrat. It should be an interesting race.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 8:21 AM 
