Crosblog

I sort of watched it...the TV was on, but I was in another room, making it to the final table in an online poker tournament. (Placed 5th.) I don't usually watch these things, anyway, as I lack the attention span to sit through a speech designed to be interrupted by applause every other line. I heard his statement about the marriage amendment, and I said "crap." I tuned out the whole Social Security stuff. I have a vague sense of supporting reform of some kind, but frankly, I have no plans to do the research that would give me any kind of informed opinion, so whatever you think is probably right. Somebody else thinks the exact opposite? They're probably right too.

Gee, if only there were some medium where people who did sit through the whole thing summarized it and gave the rest of us the gist of it.

Winds of Change and Kevin Drum will do nicely, among others. I watched the responses, and I'm going to try and be nice to Harry Reid in honor of my late-adopted New Year's resolution to cut conservative Democrats a little slack. He made his points, I though the "and that's coming from a Senator who represents Las Vegas" line was a good one, and in any event he's worlds better than Nancy Pelosi, who said little I agreed with, but made up for it by saying it badly.

The SOTU is one more reason Bush supporters should buy drinks for everyone who pushed the idea that Bush was stupid, since any speech where he successfully pronounces more than two four-syllable words is spun as a rousing success. (Tip from Republican conspiracy mongers: Your opponents are always evil geniuses. Always.) Joe Katzman explains it better than I could:

Bush communicates best in deeds, in tableaux that speak incredibly loudly. I'm trying to recall another politician who could match that particular style and gift. I can't. It's W's saving political grace and potential disaster point, all in one.

Point is, what Bush does has always been more eloquent than what he says. He was talking about this:

Of course, I don't know if it's fair to compare anyone's skill with words to that.

Cross-posted at Of the Mind