Analysis: President Bush's State of the Union Speech

President Bush donned the compassionate conservatism that was glimpsed eight years ago during his first run for the presidency Monday night, tipping his hat to a devastated Louisiana coast, calling for popular immigration reform, and nudging Congress to move toward independence from foreign oil through advancing clean air technologies. While Keith Olbermann of MSNBC counted nine reruns in the president's speech, this speech held a kinder tone from his past few speeches and many policies were applauded by both sides of the aisle.

Cutaways highlighted the efforts of President Bush to create a sense of unity and accomplishment to his administration as he tried to pour salve over a broken republican party. President Bush even evoked a smile from Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu when he mentioned an annual meeting of Canada, Mexico and the United States would be held this year in New Orleans, a move designed to band-aid the lack of expedited response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Applause abounded from both sides of the aisles.

Immigration reform policy surfaced in the State of the Union speech Monday night greeted with a reluctant Congress during this uncertain campaign season. Republicans applauded because of progress that has been made to secure our country's borders against illegal immigration, while democrats applauded because they agree that the millions of illegal immigrants who pay taxes while living and working here with US born children should be given some way of continuing a life they have built. It was a smart move to reintroduce the idea of comprehensive immigration reform as Americans in both parties are overwhelmingly concerned about this issue and his ideas will be a weapon to use in the upcoming general election.

On the issue of foreign oil, the Congress did not react in unity with support for American innovation and production of clean air technologies. While republicans showed favor of clean-air coal technology, democrats remained silent. Why? Greenpeace, an activist organization seeking to improve the environment globally stated this about the Energy and Independence Security Act of 2007 recently passed by the House of Representatives, "We believe that the legislation's tax breaks for so-called 'clean coal' technology are a subsidy for an unworkable technology and that the biofuels production provision lacks necessary environmental safeguards, but overall the bill has more positive than negative elements."Other topics hit a partisan wall.

With an undertone of the ideology of preemptive strike, President Bush once again invoked the rhetoric leading up to the Iraq war citing uranium enrichment as a threat to our national security. The difference? He was referring to Iraq's neighbor, Iran. This was received by democrats with the same defiance that has been enacted for the duration of a war unauthorized. There was a subtle difference in his foreign policy tone from previous speeches. Instead of choosing unfriendly governments to call "evil," the President referred to terrorists saying "these are evil men." This was an important distinction for the president to make indicating his recent trip to the Middle East influenced him to be more diplomatic while still retaining the tough talk that has been his hallmark for the past eight years.

Overall, President Bush's last speech was indicative of a lame duck president with an effort to issue an autobiographical legacy as his term comes to a close, at the same time trying to set the stage for unity within an uncertain republican party.