The State of our Union is surreal

Of course some of GWB's speech last night was really hard to listen to -- the rhetoric was all neo-con (American exceptionalism and liberty for all), but the legislative proposals were largely Democratic: support for science and math education, alternative fuels for crying out loud. It was like listening to a different president -- (Hillary) Clinton or (Ted) Kennedy. Even the scolding GWB gave about isolationism was so not Republican -- the Repugs have been the isolationist party for at least 50 years*. Weird. I wonder what the average American thought of this speech. Oh yeah, the average American didn't listen to this speech!

*Actually, that isn't quite accurate -- the Republicans were all about intervention during the Cold War. But they were very against entering WWII (when the term "isolationist" was coined) and they fought Bill Clinton all during the 1990s (re Haiti and Kosovo, etc). It seems hard to believe now, but GWB ran on a platform of international isolation in 2000 -- he pledged to have a "humble" foreign policy.