What I Would Like To Hear In The State Of The Union

Bush is slated to give the State of the Union address tonight and speculation is already rampant about what we can expect to hear: more money for Homeland Security, more money for job training, defending the war in Iraq, and maybe even proposing to send a man to the moon again. The speculation is all well and fine, but I thought I might throw in my two cents as to what I'd like to hear.

First of all, Iraq. I want to hear about the good things that we're doing over there. All the crap about WMDs and credibility in the world community and the staging or effectiveness of Saddam's capture - well that's just all a bunch of bunk. I don't think that there is a person alive who could look at the pictures of the mass graves, who could see the pictures of the medications that were deliberately withheld, who could see the pictures of and hear the stories from the torture chambers and not say that Saddam was an evil demonic man and that the world is a better place with him awaiting his fate, rather than determining the fate of others (well, ok, Howard Dean basically questioned it, but then he's not real high on my list of favorite people these days). So far as I'm concerned, Iraq is a non-starter as an issue. Things could be better - they could always be better - but by and large, in less than a year's time, we've done a pretty good job.

What I would rather hear about is how we're supporting the students in Iran. Or maybe how we're trying to neutralize the threat that is North Korea. Let's talk about the plan for the threats that still exist rather than Monday Morning Quarterbacking the threats that have already been contained.

One area where I'm not real happy with Bush is in the area of increased spending. More money for Homeland Security, for job training, for additional Social Security or Medicare payments or whatever can be dreamed up can all be defended on a item by item basis (usually). There is no shortage of good ideas that could justify funding. There is a limited supply of money for the excellent ideas that really require funding. Somewhere along the way, the government seems to have lost the ability to prioritize spending. The gravy train has to stop at some point.

I won't argue that more money for Homeland Security isn't important, but I would like to know why it is more important than say more defense spending. I don't disagree that more spending for job training would be a good thing, but why is it more important than better border security? I really want to know why these items, singled out for special attention in the State of the Union are so important and why they should be a priority. There are lots of good causes to fund; what makes these special?

And finally, I don't want to hear about sending a man to the moon again. We've already done that. Sending a man to the moon isn't the inspiration, the reach for greatness, that it once was. It's almost passe.

That isn't to say that I think that there shouldn't be a manned space program. There absolutely should be. It's just that going to the moon isn't a real goal. It's just redoing something we've already done. You want to inspire me? You want to get me excited?

Send a man to Mars.

That's a stretch. That would push a lot of our technological expertise. It's new. It's different. It's a real goal.

The biggest problem I have with the man-on-the-moon-again schtick is that there really isn't any risk; there are few hurdles to be overcome. We could simply recreate the Saturn V and off we go. Where's the inspiration in that? Where's the potential for technological advances? I thought 60s retro came and went a few years back. NASA needs a real challenge, not a re-creation of its glory years.

That's what I'd like to hear. Unfortunately, I already know that I won't hear any of that. Instead we'll get the usual SOU fluff and we'll be left thinking that we just missed another good Tuesday night of reruns.

UPDATE: Didn't really like it. On foreign policy issues I thought it was good; on domestic issues I thought it was a complete bomb. I'll try to expand on that some more tomorrow when I'm not suffering from NyQuil.