Morning Update: State of the Union Response
After the State of the Union Monday night, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) both criticized President Bush for what they say is an attempt to ensure that the next president will not be able to withdraw from Iraq. In an interview with MSNBC after the address, Obama said Bush has been “foreshadowing” endless war. Obama said he “would have liked to see that we had a plan to exit from Iraq.”
In a statement, Clinton said Bush “isn’t satisfied with failure after failure in Iraq; he wants to bind the next President to his failed strategy by unilaterally negotiating with the Iraqi government about the future of the U.S.-Iraq security relationship, including the possibility of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq.”
All three of the Democratic candidates also criticized Bush’s economic stimulus plan, which, John Edwards said, “leaves out tens of millions of Americans who need help the most.”
Republican candidates generally praised Bush’s speech. Mitt Romney said on NBC that Bush “recognizes that Washington has been unable to deal” with problems including al-Qaeda and immigration. “This was a President saying, ‘You know what? Washington ought to get the job done.’”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Bush was “correct in his assessment” of the threat of radical Islamic extremism.
In a press release, Mike Huckabee said Bush’s speech reaffirms that “difficult as it has been, we are making progress in Iraq and Afghanistan,” and called on Americans to “take pride in the accomplishments of our warriors, under the superb leadership of General Petraeus.”
January 29th, 2008 at 10:42 am
I’ll leave it to others to comment on the rosy picture put on the war, the economy, no child left behind and others. The President, unlike past year’s, did not mention either abortion or gay marriage. The possibilities of adult stem cell research brought loud applause, and the entire chamber rose when he called for a ban on human cloning. (But really — is anyone advocating human cloning??) Any mention of supporting the troops brought sustained applause, but I couldn’t help wonder why none of the uniformed servicepeople in the audience were women — surely someone in the White House knows about gender diversity.
1-20-09 is less than a year away. I can’t wait to celebrate.
Rev. Debra Haffner