The Real Message Behind Bush’s State of the Union Speech

The Real Message Behind Bush’s State of the Union Speech
by Rachel Alexander, Columnist and Legal Analyst

February 3, 2006

The significance of Bush’s State of the Union Speech was not the new dull-sounding initiatives he proposed: the Advanced Energy Initiative, to increase clean energy research funding at the Department of Energy, or the American Competitiveness Initiative, to increase funding in areas such as nanotechnology, supercomputing, and alternative energy sources, make permanent the research and development tax credit, and improve math and science education in high schools.

The real message was his deft deflection of criticism of the administration’s record on Iraq and terrorism. Bush could have ended his speech with a memorable line like Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” or he could have begun his speech announcing a profound initiative. Instead, he decided to make the strongest and most memorable lines in his speech the ones defending his record on Iraq and the war on terrorism. He went on the offensive, turning his critics’ attacks around on them:

“Yet there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy.”

Bush adroitly justified the need for a neoconservative aggressive approach on terrorism, by portraying his detractors as conceding to the terrorists: “In a time of testing, we cannot find security by abandoning our commitments and retreating within our borders. If we were to leave these vicious attackers alone, they would not leave us alone. They would simply move the battlefield to our own shores.” Bush used both powerful military lingo and policy arguments to attack his critics: “There is no peace in retreat. And there is no honor in retreat…America rejects the false comfort of isolationism.” He pointed out that other Presidents from Roosevelt to Truman to Kennedy to Reagan rejected isolationism and retreat.

Bush slyly included a line defending the oft-criticized connection between Iraq and terrorism, asserting that the aim of terrorists is to “seize power in Iraq, and use it as a safe haven to launch attacks against America and the world.”

Bush even fended off the most recent invective against the war on terror, directed at his terrorist surveillance program. He pointed out that other presidents have used it in the past and that it has been approved by the federal courts.

The message of the 2006 State of the Union was that Bush was right on the war on terror, and will continue to be right. Bush brilliantly turned the focus from a discussion of his record to the dangers his critics are creating by their constant negativity and pacifism. His toned-down and rather dull discussion of his economic programs revealed that he may not be too proud or sure of his record on domestic spending, which has frustrated conservatives. He left out any discussion of his social conservative record; since his performance there has been fairly satisfactory to conservatives, bringing those types of issues up would only serve to needlessly aggravate voters in the middle.

Bush’s record on the war on terror has proven more successful than Bill Clinton’s. The “Axis of Evil” Bush condemned in 2002 is no longer; Iraq has been removed from the trio, and Bush’s aggressive approach has been making inroads toward Iran and North Korea. And even if terrorism becomes worse in the future, it will actually bolster support for Bush’s tough on terrorism approach. The new foreign aggression is terrorism, and unlike most on the Left, Bush has caught on to this correlation and run with it. ***

Rachel Alexander is a Deputy County Attorney with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Miss Alexander's home page is The Intellectual Conservative, which has numerous talented writers from whose talents you can enjoy - or complain about.

Rachel Alexander is the Co-Editor of IntellectualConservative.com and an attorney practicing law in Phoenix, Arizona. Email her at rachel@intellectualconservative.com. This article originally appeared here.

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