State of the Union address....are you watching tonight?

Going to try and catch this. Why, you ask? When I usually try to avoid politics like the plauge?

I just read an article online that says Bush will be calling for curb in gas consumption in the speech. This, from Mr. Big Oil himself?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16767118/

Apparently, he's going to focus on Iraq, energy, education, immigration and health care. A quick summary...

He's not expected to repeat the same speech he gave about Iraq two weeks ago, but defend his stand that Iraq is part of the "war on terror" and that it's making Americans safer.

Tax deductions for individuals and families, regardless of whether they buy heath care or recieve it thru employers.

Push Congress to renew his No Child Left Behind law

Push for reform that goes further than border securtiy

There was a lot of talk about tonights address on public radio today. One of the things they kept brining up, besides all the topics you mentioned, was how is the audience going to react to the address. Now that both the House and Senate are controlled by Democrats, the people on the radio were all very curious to see how Nacy Pelosi, and other Democrats will react. Will they be standing up and clapping, or will they be sitting on their hands? With the Speaker of the House sitting on the stage behind the president, it should be pretty easy to see how she reacts.

Curious: what have opposition leaders in congress done in the past?

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Originally Posted by walterick

Curious: what have opposition leaders in congress done in the past?

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I have no idea. I have never really given the SOTU much attention before. I did watch most of the speach last night, but I fell asleep before it was over.

I did notice there was at least one time when the VP would stand up clapping, while Pelosi just sat there. I don't remember what the topic of the speach was at that time. I guessing it was about the war.

Something else I thought was interesting was a comment that the CBS news person (don't remember his name). He said that the democratic leaders had told the other members to be on their best behavior. I guess they didn't want anyone to make a scene, or show any disrespect for the president.

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

I did notice there was at least one time when the VP would stand up clapping, while Pelosi just sat there. I don't remember what the topic of the speach was at that time. I guessing it was about the war.

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Didn't catch that but it may have been at the beginning of the speech which I missed. Actually I noticed that Pelosi seemed to be generally more enthusiastic, other than the mention of stepping up domestic oil production that really woke up Cheney...

Agree that the 20% reduction for gasoline use in 10 years is a bit of a surprise but I'm hoping for the best. I'm doing my part; I've only bought about one gallon of gasoline a year for almost the past four.

Truthfully I now drive a diesel VW and the gas is for the lawnmower. That's how those statements work, always a little more to the story...

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Originally Posted by another view

Truthfully I now drive a diesel VW and the gas is for the lawnmower...

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Ah, I thought you were going to say you hold some strange druid ritual BONFIRE once a year, and use the gasoline for that... :D

BTW, you know you could be doing better. Get a REEL mower... :ihih:

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

Ah, I thought you were going to say you hold some strange druid ritual BONFIRE once a year, and use the gasoline for that... :D

BTW, you know you could be doing better. Get a REEL mower... :ihih:

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Too cold for bonfires at the moment - but Florida now... :)

And I could hire someone to do the lawn, that's another way I wouldn't be buying any gas (obviously the landscape guy would be buying it for me, and putting gas in his truck to get to my house - which also proves my point about "more to the story"...).

It would be interesting to see if that health insurance cost will become a tax deduct. I love any tax deduct the government give us....mo money in my tax return!!! OH YEAH!!!

Everything else sounded like "rhetoric"

It's painful to hear that he is asking us to give his new IRAQ plan a "CHANCE." We are CHANCING the lives of our soldiers. 20k+ more troops.....can he please be more specific??????