The State of the Union Address

I always watch the state of the union address. And not because I like politics....but because I like my husband. I absolutley do not share his passion for politics. I did well in my 9th grade civics class, and I am pretty impressed with hubby when he knows the names of obscure senators. I thought it was really sexy (in an Alex P. Keaton kind of way) when I saw the signed head-shots of Newt Gingerich and Al Damato on his walls when we were dating. But I digress...

I think you have to be kind of difficult, a little pig-headed, and for some, a little underhanded to be successful in politics. I don't really want to elect someone who is squeaky clean, quite frankly, because I'm pretty sure between the media and the opposing party, he'd be decimated. And, this being a republic, someone who is "too good" is not representative of the complex and multilayered (ie sinful) people that make up this country now. (Not that people weren't bad in the past, they just had different social codes).

That being said, I love W and always have. The minute he came on the political stage as a candidate, he was my guy. I know that 50 percent of that is because he reminds me of my dad. But the other 50 percent is because I believe he knows what he is doing. He's not TOO good, he's got character, he's smarter than they say he is, and I fully believe he knows stuff about Iraq that we won't know until Fox does a special about it in like 50 years. I think he has the character to take the heat from his critics because he knows it is good for the country in the long run.

Here are some other thoughts: I like the speech and thought it was good. It was quite entertaining to watch peoples faces...albeit cranky ones. Quite frankly, I have to wonder if it is even possible for one person to really lead a whole country. When the country was formed it was 1/4 of the size and their was no mass media. People were better followers then. I still believe in the balance of power, I mean, we can't just leave everything to the courts and the professional politicians in congress, but I just wonder how much they ever really get anything done with everyone jostling for their positions.

I can't imagine who will be elected next. Really, there are so few people I want to look at for 8 years. I'm deeply grateful for a lot of reasons that John Kerry wasn't elected, not the least of which is that he's an awful looking fella to be on my tv screen every day.

Political parties are going to have to change with the emerging culture. Quite frankly, the right no longer embodies all that I believe. We're going to need some other options because neither party really expresses what the next couple of generations believe either. I'd like to suggest the Green Day party (angst and anger) vs. the U2 party (optimism and activism). Yeah, that should do it. And put a concert or something in the middle of the State of the Union Address. At least give us a commercial break. I confess, my attention span is only about 20 minutes long and I'm not going to be all brainy and say otherwise. I guess I want my MTV.

And that, my friends, is the unglossed opinion about politics from a person who votes faithfully and almost 100 percent republican every time, while having not much faith in politics as a whole.

BTW: here's my pic of W just before I shook hands with him back in October of '04.