SOTU Text, Etc.

Here's the full text of Bush's State of the Union speech.

And here's the Democrats' response.

Last year, I did a super-condensed version of the SOTU.

This year, I was/am too tired. Though I'll note two strange things:

1. For all the talk about Social Security reform, etc., Bush spent a fair amount of time talking about hardcore social conservative issues, including opposition to gay marriage and abortion. Yet this time around, those things went largely uncommented upon by pundits after the fact. Not sure what that means (probably nothing), but I thought it interesting.

2. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the head of the Senate Democrats, burned a fair amount of time recounting one of the fakest aw-shucks anecdotes heard in recent times, the verbal equivalent of a $3 bill:

A few weeks ago, I joined some friends of mine for a bite to eat at The Nugget–Searchlight's only restaurant [Searchlight, Nevada is Reid's hometown]. We were sitting down in a booth, when a young boy, about 10 years old, named Devon walked up to us.

Carrying a skateboard under his arm, he said, "Senator Reid, when I grow up I want to be just like you."

Well, the truth is Devon could probably do a lot better. But the point still holds and it is this: No one ever had to tell young Devon to dream big dreams, no one ever had to teach him that America is a place of possibility.