He is destroying the straw man! Don't "second guess" it is not a strategy!

The props in presidential box are really over the top!

At the start of 2006, more than half the people of our world live in democratic nations. And we do not forget the other half - in places like Syria, Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran - because the demands of justice, and the peace of this world, require their freedom as well.

iran isn't a democracy? iirc, they just had elections :P (i know it's technically a theocracy, but it's more democratic than, say, china is!)

- DC Mayor Anthony Williams is going to run for something soon.

- Hillary Clinton doesn't know how to clap. Its like shes in a disco?

- Greenspan will be named to hid this 'baby boomer' comission.

I turned off the tv and turned on Clapton - much better.

"But hindsight alone is not wisdom, and second-guessing is not a strategy. We have changed our tactics when necessary, and progress is steady and sure."

- Best line of the evening

Please, can Republicans go a single hour without playing the "gay" card. Yeah, it scared me into action a few years ago...but its really getting boring and insulting now.

The State of the Union address has been pure propaganda for more than a generation. It speaks ill of our allegedly professional mass media that they play it up so much, and ill of us that we don't recognize it as an integral part of our sound-bite politics which make it so difficult for us to face long term problems. At least W Bush doesn't speak as long as B Clinton. They both used it as a smoke screen.
Saying that you can discuss the future but not the past is offensive to any thinking person. I’ll accept the claim that W Bush thought he was doing the right thing by invading Iraq, but how anyone could have thought it was OK not to plan for the post-war future is beyond me. God help us if he bombs Iran.

But hindsight alone is not wisdom, and second-guessing is not a strategy. We have changed our tactics when necessary, and progress is steady and sure.
I.E.
Sure i've made series of bad decisions... but you can't critsize them, unless you have a better idea of how to fix my mess. I've said all along we have been making progress- except by any metric (water, electricy,oil production, deaths, wounded) THERE HAS NOT BEEN ANY PROGRESS!

Unless you've come up with some form of ressurection, deaths is not a measure of progress or failure since it must always go up (unless you want to offset it with births?). The same applies to wounded.

As to the others, do you have any data?

Mr Jenkins,
I thought a man of your intellect would grasp that point that fewer people getting killed or wound in combat would be a sign of progress. 3 plus years into operation Iraqi freedom combat deaths are not going down. A running monthly total is availible on globalsecurity.org. Dont bother to look ..."if the president says "mission accomplished" just take his word for it.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-10-10-iraq-oil-usat_x.htm
Iraqi oil production down 40% from pre-war level.
That was an Iraq that had been under sanction for quite some time. So even the pre-war level were not near capacity. PROGRESS!

At the Al-Dora power station in Baghdad on May 3, the deputy manager of the plant, Bashir Khalaf Omair, said that electricity output in Iraq prior to the March, 2003 invasion was around 5,000 Megawatts (MW) a day.

Iraq’s Acting Minister of Electricity, Ra’ad Al-Haris, said in an interview Thursday that the current supply of electricity produced in Iraq measures between 3,600-4,000 MW.

Currently, even in the best neighbourhoods of Baghdad there is only twelve hours of electricity per day, and this only intermittently. Most areas of the city have between six and eight hours of power per 24 hours.

Again after the US invasion Iraq cannot deliver the goods to its people better than a Stalinist government under sanctions. PROGRESS!

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; Page A13

BAGHDAD, Jan. 30 -- The U.S. official who oversees reconstruction spending in Iraq has called for money beyond $18.4 billion originally earmarked, saying postwar funds will be exhausted by the end of 2006 with many projects likely to be unfinished.

Iraq's water supply, electrical capacity and oil production -- three primary targets of reconstruction -- are functioning below prewar standards, said Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, in a quarterly report to Congress published Monday.
STEADY PROGRESS!