State of the Union: Zzzzzz

"A major metropolitan area wiped nearly off the face of the Earth, and it merits only six sentences on the next-to-last page of the President's State of the Union Address?!?!? Can there be any more proof that the federal government is washing its hands of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Dozens and dozens of paragraphs on rebuilding other nations, but barely a mention of New Orleans. Even more amazing is how Democrats could not see this gaping hole in the President's speech, at least not in the interviews I watched.

"Give credit to NBC Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams for seeing it and directly asking Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) about Bush's after-thought treatment of rebuilding the Gulf region. But Obama glossed right over Williams' on-target question, didn't rise to the bait in the least. No wonder Democrats cannot win elections."

Josh Marshall makes a telling admission and sounds on the verge of joining a 12-step group:

"I have a confession: I'm not sure when the last time was when I watched the State of the Union address. I think I may have watched it in 2003. But I'm not even certain of that. Perhaps a glance through the archives would show that I watched a bit of it last year, I don't know.

"The truth is, I find it unwatchable.

"Now, I read the transcript later. I'll often go back and watch key sections so I can get the flavor of a particular passage in the speech or of a debate it has spawned.

"But the thing itself (watching the actual production in real time) and then the imbecile chatter afterwards -- I just can't deal. I just find it unbearable.

"Are there others out there like me?"

As for the MSM, today's the day they tell you why most of the stuff in that speech ain't gonna happen:

"The energy proposals set out on Tuesday by President Bush quickly ran into obstacles on Wednesday, showing how difficult it will be to take even the limited steps he supports to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil," says the New York Times .

"On the day after he declared in his State of the Union address that the United States was 'addicted to oil' and had to wean itself from a century-old habit, Mr. Bush drew some support for putting the issue more prominently on the agenda but also skepticism about how achievable his goals really were. . . .

"Diplomatically, Mr. Bush's ambitious call for the replacement of 75 percent of the United States' Mideast oil imports with ethanol and other energy sources by 2025 upset Saudi Arabia, the main American oil supplier in the Persian Gulf. In an interview on Wednesday, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said he would have to 'seek an explanation' from Mr. Bush.