President George W. Bush gave his state of the union speech last night, and I was both surprised and not surprised by its contents. I was somewhat surprised by the opening, which was conciliatory toward the Democrats - including an acknowledgment of Nancy Pelosi as the first woman Speaker of the House. The president also expressed hope for the recovery of Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, whose ill health could lead to a return to Republican control of the Senate.

However, Bush showed his old form when he congratulated the new “Democrat majority” in the Congress. The correct term is Democratic, as in Democratic Party, which apparently was the word used in the written version of the speech. It’s important to call people by what they want to be called, and the president, like some right-wing radio hosts, has consistently refused to do that.

I was more surprised by the president’s statements on energy. Take a look at these words:

Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we’ve done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years. When we do that, we will have cut our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East.

To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017. And that is nearly five times the current target. At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks, and conserve up to eight and a half billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017. Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but it’s not going to eliminate it.

I was encouraged also that the president spoke about the need to “take on the challenges of hunger, poverty, and disease” around the world, and he mentioned concrete proposals to fight AIDS, malaria, and poverty.

The president’s verbiage on Iraq was not a surprise and was consistent with his speech on the subject earlier this month. See a January 19 post for my take on that.

Finally, the Democratic response by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia took the president to task not only for Iraq but also for his rosy scenario of the U.S. economy. Webb was right to point out that while the economy has been expanding, inequality has been growing, and many Americans are being left behind.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Energy, Politics.