The Day After - Reflections on the State of the Union

President Bush continues to perform and his opponents continue to underestimate him and alienate themselves from the average citizen.

The President's numbers from the warfront to the home front received a tremendous boost from this speech. Confidence that both Iraq and the United States were headed in the right direction rose to 78% and 77% respectively. His popularity among Catholics is indicative of a sea change in national party affiliation.

Some things that stuck me, and perhaps many Catholics, while listening to the SOTU address.

• Bioethical Bravery - Bush continues to stand beside Catholics in the call and quest for a "culture of life."

"To build a culture of life, we must also ensure that scientific advances always serve human dignity, not take advantage of some lives for the benefit of others ... I will work with Congress to ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation or grown for body parts, and that human life is never bought and sold as a commodity."

The President will continue to erode into the Democratic Catholic base so long as they remain beholden to the abortion industry. They are so fearful of offending the abortion lobby that they are unable to unify in support of common sense measures prohibiting infanticide and punishing one who kills a woman's wanted unborn child.

• The Display of Democratic Disrespect - Silence is one thing, but Democratic booing in the middle of the president's address showed a lack of class.

During the President's lengthy explanation as to why he believes social security reform is needed (and nearly everyone agrees on this point) a significant number of Democrats began to boo and shout (was it just my imagination or could you actually distinguish Ted Kenney's voice from the crowd). Having the bully pulpit the President was able to march on, but not before the Democrats made complete asses of themselves (pun intended). Democrats believe that they need to be more agressive, more extreme, more assertive, but they couldn't be farther from the truth.

• The Lack of Laundry Lists - During his fourth SOTU address the President relied too much on new programs in search of applause lines. Here he received the greatest amount of applause for his promise to spend less then inflation, essentially allowing the government to shrink in size.

Of course, the greatest applause came when an Iraqi women who's husband had died under Hussein's regime consoled an American mother who's son had died fighting in Iraq. Watching the two, we all understood that their sacrifices were not in vain.