President Bush's final State of the Union speech won't go down as anything notable, but there were two things that were pretty interesting.
First, you had to love the almost immediate reminder to Congress that their existence was to handle the people's business. The congressmen in attendance certainly didn't enjoy hearing that. They, of course, are too busy with their own agendas and following the marching orders of their financial supporters. Being talked down to by a president with such a low approval rating probably didn't taste so good, either.
Bush was right. Congressional negligence of the people's business is practically criminal in nature and they need to be set straight. If Bush can't do so, then we'll have to in the voting booth.
Second, was it me, or did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi age about thirty years while Bush spoke about progress in Iraq to often thunderous applause. At first, as Bush spoke about the spread of freedom in the Middle East, she wore a smile and appeared to think that maybe things really were working. As Bush went on to talk about Iraq specifically, he had some sort of applause line, got the usual ovation, and when the camera went back to Pelosi -- oh, my God! This is a pretty attractive older woman we're talking about here. I was thinking early in the speech that she was looking pretty well put-together. But when the camera returned from the applause to Bush, with Pelosi in the background, she looked like she was in the depths of depression.
Bush spent a large percentage of his speech on Iraq and the war on terrorism, and as he continued, she looked worse and worse. I started thinking of the stages of depression that people go through and, sure enough, after a while, she wore an expression of denial. Her arms weren't crossed in front of her, but she was hunched over like she wanted to do that.
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Tuesday brings the Florida primary. Polling shows Hillary Clinton with leads of either just under or just over 20 percent above Barack Obama. On the GOP side, polls are showing John McCain with the slightest of edges over Mitt Romney. Rudy Giuliani, who'd counted on Florida to get back in the race with his "big state" strategy, is mired in third place.
Nationally, however, Rasmussen shows Romney gaining nine points in the past week or so to take the lead for Republicans.
