Due to a Rovian plot*, our site was down throughout the whole state of the union, preventing me from uploading witty commentary and delightful insights. On the whole, though, I thought the speech a normal Bush State of the Union: A bunch of fluffy rhetoric about unity that gets quickly defined as total subjugation to a hard conservative agenda leavened by some nice sounding stuff on foreign aid that Bush won't actually follow through on. And then, just when you think it'll never end, a weird historical digression and...toodles! Sadly, Kathleen Sebelius's response wasn't much better, and might even have been worse. Her delivery was nervous and unmoving, the pauses felt like the teleprompter said "PAUSE," and in moments when she was probably supposed to smile, she gave a little grimace. The content, too, was warmed over and vague, a bunch of platitudes and agenda items presented without context (why haven't we signed an S-CHIP bill, for instance?) or urgency. All in all, could've been better. That said, the SOTU-response is a tough gig and almost all who attempt it fail. Webb succeeded because he insisted on injecting himself into the address. Sebelius's effort sort of read like "Address to be read by Unnamed Democrat." I'd like to see what she can do in a different context. *I assume
