State of the Union
 

:confused: Any thoughts on your presidents State of the Union speech?

I didn't get to hear much it so I'll be waiting til tomorrow, but I what I did hear reminds me how much I dislike the constant applause they do. They're only clapping because it sounds good. Sit on your hands til the end of the speech.

The President's comments on alternative renewable sources of energy was promising--we depend to much on Middle Eastern oil, I'm tired of making these countries rich...

Bush's support for "civilians assisting in Iraq" is outrageous. This is a classic case of the military-industrial complex, what he really meant was big companies like Haliburton are private industry war profiteers, they send private citizens that the government pays to do jobs that the military used to do for themselves like peeling potatoes, etc.

As far as the rest of the speech about 1/3 of it was about again connecting Iraq and the War on Terror...Blah Blah Blah...He basically begged for more time to put more troops into this Billion dollar war and his New Strategy. What new strategy? Sounds like the same old stuff to me...Democrats always stood and clapped when Bush called for us to support the troops. They always want to show their support for the troops it is pathetic--most people know Democrats are patriotic and are not anti-military, why do they always have to publicly let the American people they are against the war but behind the troops? I think we should support the troops by removing them from the war and taking them out of harm's way...I believe Republicans call this "Cut and Run" but it is better than "Stay and Die."

The clapping thing was ridiculous, I felt like most of the politicians were sheep. They clapped for everything and it was unnecessary. If I were a Senator of Congressmen I would sit right in my seat...it's not like the President was issuing the New Deal.

I was stunned by how much sense he made... seriously... I commend his speech writer... he did talk about health care and education which has been long overdue, and he did gloss, emphasis on gloss, over the situation in Iraq and he subtley (sp) told congress that more troops will be in Iraq before the year is out...

everytime the house clapped and people got up, I got a bit mroe aggravated... you could see Pelosi was not feeling it, even though Bush spent like 20 minutes flattering her...

why was Hillary just cheesing everytime the camera found her... and why was Obama sitting right in front of her?

all in all... I like Jim Webb's response... yay VA!!!

*getting off soapbox*

Re: Seating
I think they have assigned seats, and it's probably that Illinois comes before New York (and Obama just happened to be directly in front of Clinton).

But I'm not sure about that.

Halliburton has professionals far beyond what the military can offer. I mean, I agree it'd be cool if the military could do that, but a lot of what Halliburton does is extremely specialized. Also, I like that we have groups like Blackwater. I don't see why everyone is so upset about the clapping, it always happens. Its basically SOTU tradition. Did you guys get upset when it happened to Clinton?

Here is the president's speech for those that missed it (like me :) )
Full test of the president's speech

if any inane comments were made during Clinton's SOTU address that caused unnecessary applause, then yes I would have been irritated as well... but I don't recall him making any nonsensical remarks...

Not Sure About dignifying this with a response but...
 

I think the jist of what everyone is saying is that the clapping is annoying all around. Why is everything a Democrat/Republican issue with you? You don't have to answer that.

Because its probably a republican/dem issue here. I think much of the annoyance is that a lot of people simply don't want to see applause for someone they hate. People have different tolerances for things based on what side they're on. Maybe I didn't pay attention to this board last year or the year before around the SOTU, I just don't see why this is an issue now when it happens every year. If people complain every year, then so be it, they have a right to be annoyed. I'm just questioning whether its the clapping itself or the person who is being applauded.

I dislike the clapping all the time. Congress is only doing it because it looks good and there's no need to clap, or start clapping but not quite follow through, after every phrase.

At the same time I probably wasn't paying as much attention to politics under Clinton, so I can't tell you if I even watched the SotU. And in six years I won't remember this one either.

The clapping is stupid. I heard on the news that pundits, etc. are measuring the effectiveness of the speech by how hard people clap and where they clap. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

And I'd say the same whether it was a dem or a republican. The clapping, and all the signifigance accorded to it, irks me.

Usually what the pundits are referring to are control groups of citizens brought together by political operatives to watch the SOTU or other political type events. They measure (often with a response meter held by the control group participants) the like/dislike responses of control groups participants. Operatives do the same with candidates' stump speeches, testing them on groups and using the most liked lines-topics as the basis for future campaign ads and such.

The clapping at the State of the Union is just political posturing and stagecraft. ...or maybe they do it to stay awake. :D

This makes all kinds of sense...especially the latter half.

OK, I just read his address so thank goodness I missed all the grandstanding. :) But based on what I read I don't think he address what the American public wanted to hear. Great ideas in regards to the fight against AIDS, NCLBA (although I do think that it still needs some major work - children should be thought to think critically, not to simply memorize info in order to get a particular test score, but digress), even immigration reform. But the main hot button is the war - which the majority of american (regardless if you Dem/Repub/liberal/conservative) has grown remarkably tired of it. It matters not how much he wants to grow our military forces, if there are no volunteers who are willing to take up the challenge?

I think if the Republicans are going to have even a remote chance in 2008, they are going to have to either (a) some SERIOUS butt kissing to the more moderate voting base (b) more vocally publically distance themselves from Pred. Bush's initiatives with his current Iraq stratefy being one of them or (c) pull a SUPER candidate out of a hat that will overshadow our current presidnent's damage and alienation to current republican party memebers.

Long time groups which at one point was considered a "shoe-in" for Republicans (ex. evangelicals) have grown tired. Not to mention the fact that you now have more candidates of other parties (especially the Democrats) touting themselves as "evangelical friendly" (ex Bob Casey of Penn). Its almost like the Democrats have found this niche and are taking advantage of the opportunity and the Repubs are just basically sitting back and letting it happen. Well I take that back - Sen Brownback has been publically critical of our President so maybe some Repubs are S-L-O-W-L-Y starting to catch on that for a victory in 2008, its going to take more than the old school party line tactics that were used in days gone by.

Just my 2 cents.... :cool: