Redstate

A Post-I-Don't-Want-To-Say-"Mortem"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | The White House — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I didn't get to see the whole speech, but from what I saw, the President actually delivered his comments well; evidently, someone told him that the best way to deliver a speech was to refrain from shouting and excessively enunciating his comments. There were good portions in the speech, especially concerning Iraq, the general war on terror, school vouchers, earmarks and judicial nominations. Bizarrely, however, the President has chosen to add more support to the bloated and unhelpful ethanol subsidy while failing to recognize that importing foreign oil is part and parcel of living in a free market world and that if we want to reduce our dependence on oil, nuclear power will have to serve as an option.

There simply was not enough on reducing the size of government, and there was no mention whatsoever of reforming Social Security--a bitter pill to swallow for all of those who properly recognize the demographic problems awaiting Social Security.

As I have discussed, one speech will not a political success make. The President must follow up his comments with a barnstorming effort that will put his ideas out in the forefront and cause the Democrats to recede into the background. Only by engaging in such long term political activities will long term political successes be brought about. In the past few years, the White House has done nothing but disappoint its would-be supporters on this score. We will see whether the President and his team pull themselves out of the doldrums now.