Disappointing State of the Union

It was a night of disappointments as President G.W. Bush delivered his State of the Union Address to the joint Houses of Congress Tuesday.

First, the rumoured White House policy shift on global warming never materialized. It's true that President Bush mentioned climate change for the first time in a State of the Union address, but it was a less-than stirring reference:

"America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. These technologies will help us become better stewards of the environment -- and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change."

In fact, in asking Congress to "double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," and to "step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways," the President seemed to indicate that he would leave no park untramelled in his effort to stay the oily course.

The second disappointment was the " First-Ever Live Senate Blog During State of the Union Address, " that had been advertised by Republican attack dog Marc Morano. Currently the communications aid to Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, Morano is also a former Rush Limbaugh researcher credited with creating the controversial swiftboat veterans attack on Senator John Kerry during the last presidential campaign. Regrettably, Morano came up with nothing so juicy last evening and we had to settle for this tepid policy discussion from Inhofe instead.