What the President Meant to Say

Charlie Savage writes in the Boston Globe; "Legal specialists yesterday questioned the accuracy of President Bush's sweeping contentions about the legality of his domestic spying program, particularly his assertion in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that 'previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have.' "

The "legal specialists said yesterday that wiretaps ordered by previous presidents were put in place before warrants were required for investigations involving national security. Since Congress passed the law requiring warrants in 1978, no president but Bush has defied it, specialists said."

Straw Man Watch, Part I

The New York Times editorial board writes: "President Bush is not giving up the battle over domestic spying. He's fighting it with an army of straw men and a fleet of red herrings. . . .

"One of the oddest moments in Mr. Bush's defense of domestic spying came when he told his audience in Nashville, 'If I was trying to pull a fast one on the American people, why did I brief Congress?' He did not mention that some lawmakers protested the spying at the briefings, or that they found them inadequate. The audience members who laughed and applauded Mr. Bush's version of the truth may have forgot that he said he briefed Congress fully on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We know how that turned out."

At the Grand Ole Opry

Robert Pear writes in the New York Times: "From the stage of the Grand Ole Opry House here, Mr. Bush delivered a reprise of his State of the Union address. But he was more folksy, more personal and more impassioned in setting forth his vision of the United States' place in the world, epitomized on posters plastered around the hall: 'Americans win when America leads.'

"Mr. Bush was fired up, full of determination in talking about Iraq and foreign policy. By contrast, when he turned to domestic policy, he rambled at times, then rushed through a list of proposals on health care, immigration, science education and energy conservation. . . .

"The president appeared to draw strength from the enthusiastic crowd, which included thousands of people invited to the event by local civic, business and political groups. He was scheduled to speak for 35 minutes but talked for more than an hour, and was frequently interrupted by thunderous applause."

As I wrote in yesterday's column , some reporters saw signs in Tuesday's speech that Bush was newly willing to acknowledge the anxious state of the American public. I suggested that might have been an overreaction based on a pre-speech pep talk for journalists from White House counselor Dan Bartlett.

Yesterday, an unscripted Bush made some more awkward steps in that direction.

James Gerstenzang writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Bush's speech, delivered to a supportive audience in the vast Grand Ole Opry House, suggested he was facing a new challenge: justifying his broad optimism, even as he recognizes that increasing numbers of Americans, as measured by multiple public opinion polls, have deep worries about the progress of the war, the future of the economy and the direction in which he is leading the country."

Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush said Wednesday he understands why the nation he has led for five years has become more anxious, and he urged people to have confidence in him.

"Bush maintained his optimistic message. . . . But in a rare acknowledgment of the troubled times on his watch, he tried to show empathy with the public's worries.

" 'People are uncertain, in spite of our strong union, because of war, and I understand that,' Bush said."

Here's the transcript .

Bush himself raised the question that he recognized as "dear to the hearts of many people."

"How long will we be in Iraq? And the answer is this -- it's a security aspect. And that is that if people want to be free, and if 11 million people chose to vote, the question on people's mind is, is there a willingness for the Iraqis to defend their own freedom. And I will tell you, the answer we have seen, our commanders on the ground have seen, is, absolutely. Absolutely. There is great bravery amongst these Iraqi soldiers. Our job is to convert their desire to protect their new democracy into effective forces. And that's what we're doing."

He wrapped up the answer seven paragraphs later, saying it's up to the commanders on the ground.

Greenspan's Rebuff

Brody Mullins and Jackie Calmes write in the Wall Street Journal that just a few days before his State of the Union speech, Bush tried -- and failed -- to woo Alan Greenspan to head a bipartisan commission on controlling the exploding costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Straw Man Watch, Part II

Andrew J. Bacevich writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion column: "In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush worked himself into a lather about the dangers of 'retreating within our borders.' His speech bulged with ominous references to ostensibly resurgent isolationists hankering to 'tie our hands' and leave 'an assaulted world to fend for itself.' Turning inward, the president cautioned, would provide 'false comfort' because isolationism inevitably 'ends in danger and decline.'

"But who exactly are these isolationists eager to pull up the drawbridges? What party do they control? What influential journals of opinion do they publish? Who are their leaders? Which foundations bankroll this isolationist cause?

"The president provided no such details, and for good reason: They do not exist. Indeed, in present-day American politics, isolationism does not exist. It is a fiction, a fabrication and a smear imported from another era."

Sheehan Watch

Laurie Kellman writes for the Associated Press: "Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman's wife from President Bush's State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages."

Manimal Watch

Jacob Weisberg writes in Slate: "This year's pandering nadir came during the brief passage on bioethics, when George Bush called for legislation banning the creation of 'human-animal hybrids.' In Washington, there is a lobby for everything except apparently mermaids and centaurs."

Via Wonkette , you can now buy a human-animal hybrid T-shirt at humananimalhybrid.net .

But via Kevin Drum , blogger and biology professor PZ Myers explains that doing such things as inserting human genes into mice can be the key to developing valuable treatments.

Of Bush, Myers writes: "He's trusting that everyone will think he is banning monstrous crimes against nature, but what he's really doing is targeting the weak and the ill, blocking useful avenues of research that are specifically designed to help us understand human afflictions."

Cartoon Watch

Slate compiles the best State of the Union cartoons