Turn On, Tune In, Zone Out

I must admit, I hadn't watched a state of the union address in years; the last one I actually remember accompanied a different war with Iraq. The speech was reprinted in the next day's paper, and I suddenly realized it was possible to absorb the text without sitting through all that tedious ceremony and rote applause.

But Nick said we should tune in tonight and blog our responses. So I watched it … more or less. I think I heard the president promise tax cuts to the people of Iraq, but I may have zoned out for a while.

The Democratic response was even sleepier. Maybe it's the absence of an audience or maybe the problem goes deeper, but Gary Locke sounded less like an orator than like a schoolboy at a recital. His speech was filled with the precious details of the Democrats' plan for the nation, such as the fact that his grandfather was an immigrant and his father fought against Hitler. Of course, the president's father fought against Hitler, too—further proof that there's not a dime's worth a difference between the major parties.