We had a little SOTU party here tonight, and we had a group consensus on a basic, pithy response to Bush's performance; I can't claim sole credit, but I thought I'd post it here:
"Everything looks great in Bush's world. How's it look in yours?"
(more after the break)
I mean, that's what it amounts to, isn't it? The cardinal rule in Bush-era republican politics is never, ever admit a mistake. That didn't work too badly as a strategy for a while, but now it's turned into a serious disconnect with reality that's apparent to the public, and even to the pundits. It played out on all kinds of issues in Bush's speech: the middle east is going great, the economy is terrific, we'll have those corruption and deficit and AIDS and energy issues cleared up Any Day Now.
Of course, they simultaneously do try to make the world look terrifying and they certainly don't really believe everything's coming up roses, but that's okay. Unable to sell their policies on substance, they've adopted this sort of faith-based rhetoric as their basic M.O., and if challenged on it I don't think they have much to fall back on. "Wow, Bush thinks the world's doing great!" What do you think?