State of the Union: Bush's Final Hurrah?

Money and war. That is what is on the minds of most Americans, so I expect President Bush to spend a significant amount of time on those two topics in the State of the Union Address. The economy has been in the forefront over the past few months and especially given the recent Stimulus Plan, I expect Bush to spend a fair amount of time discussing how the plan is going to help the economy and how we are not in a recession.

I wouldn't even be surprised if the words "the economy is resiliant" or "the economy is stront" to come out of his mouth. Of course, many people would like you to believe we are in a recession, the truth is that the economy did grow by 1.3% last quarter, which is slower than expectations, but is still not a negative growth (which is the true sign of a recession).

President Bush will also discuss the progress he has made in Iraq. Since sending more troops, deaths have gone down and bombings have declined. Of course, that could be because we have more troops or it could be that we are actually doing a better job in Iraq. You'll get a different answer depending on who you talk to. Of course, the President will focus on the positives of Iraq and talk about the plan for the next few months. We'll probably hear about how they are slowly refocusing on the "immediate" terror threat which now seems to be in Pakistan, which is where al-Qaeda is assumed to be. This seems to be the place where the terrorism groups have gone to re-organize.

The President will probably address his stimulus package in a little detail. He will talk about how the money will help spark the economy and when Americans could expect to get their money (pending Congress approval). He will also talk about the housing market and how we will rebound from the doom and gloom of the housing market.

Overall, I expect him to focus on the positives. For many Americans, we might feel like there aren't that many, but don't worry politicians can always make things seem better than reality. I expect President Bush to throw out some numbers of how many jobs were created, how the economy is still growing, how we are coming closer to winning the war on terror, and how we are slowly working away from our dependency on oil. It's the usual political speak that won't really say anything that we don't already know.