so all I've seen is the transcript and some snippets on the news.

I would have liked to see more than the couple of minutes he spent on the economy. And of those couple of minutes it was pure tax-cut Republican agenda stuff coming to the rescue. Message: quit worrying about unemployment and the economy. It's not a problem.

Letting people keep more of the money they earn has proven to be much more effective at stimulating the economy than increased government spending. It's a lot more efficient, too, because the Washington bureaucracy skims quite a bit off the top to cover their costs before the money returns to the states in the form of spending. Using Bush's example, that family of 4 that earns $40,000 a year will have an extra $1133 a year to spend, save, or pay off bills that they wouldn't otherwise have. That directly stimulates the economy.

He might have made a mention of civil rights. I don't have a problem that he didn't, but he may have missed an opportunity to defuse some of the racism shouting matches.

He talked about civil rights during the Trent Lott foot-in-mouth episode. Nothing he could possibly say would defuse the racism shouting matches. Those, like Jesse Jackson, who make their living by keeping racial animosity high will continue to keep the shouting matches going, lest their gravy train get derailed.

I was overjoyed that he was civil about the axis of evil half of his speech. I wish that last year he had struck as diplomatic a tone.

One wag once said that "Diplomacy is the fine art of saying 'Nice doggie' while you're looking for a stick."

It's time for straight talk, not diplomatic double-speak. Call things as they are and you'll get better results than pussy-footing around with dictators and tyrants.

I completely did not see the "smoking gun" that some pundits saw in his speech. I'd love to see some evidence on Saddam's stockpile. Or at least have that evidence spread to a number of folks who aren't already hell-bent to go to war. I would trust a neutral party's judgement, to some extent.

We've already had several threads on the desire to release evidence and the need to protect intelligence sources. Powell will reveal some evidence to the UN next week. Let's see what is shown then.

Liked some of his leftie social program and foreign aid stuff. Hope he means it.

I just hope this new foreign aid actually goes to the people who need it and not into Swiss bank accounts of those who run the countries.

I think that his medicare / drug program / HMO plan was probably badly mis-stated. When all of the details are announced, I may change my mind. But if, to get drug coverage you get kicked out of medicare then this was a pretty misleading speach.

It sounds like this idea still needs a lot of work. At the same time, it's kind of ironic that certain people always ask how we're going to afford tax cuts but never have a problem with paying for a massive new entitlement program.

When a Republican proposes something called a "Healthy Forests Initiative", beware!

After living though the worst fire seaon in Colorado history last year (and facing the prospect of an equally bad one this year due to a continuing drought), thinning the forests is far perferable to letting them burn. The status quo Sierra Club approach was an absolute disaster.