SOTU III

Thinking about the State of the Union address some more, it's occured to me that in addition to the great rhetoric on foreign policy that Bush also some a few things that are frankly pretty stupid. Like energy policy and the proposed "American Competitiveness Initiative." And really, that kind of sums it up for him. On some things he completely "gets it," perhaps most notably the war on terror and other areas like taxes. But other times I find myself thinking "WTF?" -- things like Medicare expansion, spending, McCain-Feingold, a national energy policy, expanded federal role in education, etc.

This weird dichotomy, the pro-free market Bush vs. the guy who pushes a litany of government programs to solve various ills, was noted by Veronique de Rugy of the American Enterprise Institute in this analysis piece that I recommend. As she says:

Today it is impossible to square the president's rhetorical support for free markets and limited government with the long list of programs and new initiatives that he claims to support. If all this sounds familiar, it's because it is. Bill Clinton was a master of this strategy, declaring one minute that the era of big government was over and then the next minute proposing new government programs for every conceivable problem in society.

Indeed.