I called my dad right after the State of the Union address to see what his reaction was.
He hadn’t watched. He asked me what I thought and after pausing for a brief second I replied, “It’s easier said than meant.”
George Bush said a lot of things that made a lot of sense. He stressed the fact that we need to become less dependent of fossil fuels and focus more on the development of renewable energy sources.
It only took him five years of his presidency to figure that out. What has he been doing in order to break our “addiction to oil” in the past five years other than get us into a war over oil.
Newt Gingrich commented that it is a radical thing for a Texas president to say that America is addicted to oil. I don’t think that it is that radical for Bush to say it, I think it would be radical for him to do something about it.
Bush’s religious, right-wing administration has seen the president’s approval rating plummet. Was there any doubt that he would try to reposition himself back in the center, with words but no specific programs.
And how about those Democrats, Gov. Timothy Kaine of Virginia offered up the Democrats’ response. A bi-partison and middle of the road politician, Kaine drew parallels between the success that he has had in Virginia and the potential for change on a national level. He returned always to the cheesy but simple enough truth, “There is a better way.”
Bravo to the Democrats for stepping up and getting a new face for America to see but my concern is that once again they picked too bland a flavor in Kaine. After watching Kerry flounder about in the abyss of “say nothing and they got nothing on you” politics or “flip-flopping” as the president called it, I wondered why the Democrats can’t see that there is a need for a change.
If the Democrats want to make the playing field even again they must capitalize on the Republican Party’s recent streak of follies by taking the offensive and getting out in the media and actually taking a stand.
Jon Stewart once asked on “The Daily Show,” when referring to scandals in Washington, why it seems the Republicans can make something out of nothing and the Democrats can’t make anything out of something?
He meant that no matter how much political fodder the Republicans create the Democrats have a hard time taking an issue and running with it.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman could do it but today’s Demoocrats seem afraid of making a splash.
Democrats need to stop fearing the idealogical soapbox. They must embrace it. George W. Bush stands for something and he screams it at the top of his lungs. John Kerry stood for nothing and whispered it, then lost.
Democrats need to stop being vanilla. America wants a strong leader who is not afraid to take sides.
I think a lot of people agree with Kaine that there is a better way. Someone just needs to stand up and tell America what it is.
This stand might in fact get a Democrat back into the White House.
