Find me a State of the Union speech that's not rife with more than just a little "back-patting" and self-congratulatory messages...
Seriously.
Anyway, most points were well-delivered and valid (although in VERY forgiving language), but what I'd like to know is where we are going to come up with the money to implement the changes that Bush put forth; Social Security reform is needed like CRAZY, but digging up a plan that both parties can agree upon and then finding funding that doesn't rip the middle-class and upper-class a new one in terms of tax hikes is going to be the magic trick of the century. Same goes with alternative energy; the subsidies or tax breaks that many arms of US businesses will want (and need to a degree) to fund such a shift is going to be staggering to say the least.
I'm an avowed conservative on monetary policy, so the orgy of spending that has gone unchecked that past few years has sunk us back into one hell of a financial hole has hacked me off a bit; even Greenspan voiced his concerns about this more than once during his tenure. Where some of that spending has been necessary for security reasons, there's a large portion of it that has been political "pork". The left-side of Washington used to be the old masters at this, but it seems that the right-side has picked up a lesson or two and joined them in the muck in recent years.
One thing that wasn't mentioned was lobbying reform; I want to see this ABOVE ALL ELSE in Washington. Much of the political pork legislation (on both sides) comes from intense lobbying from business and other private interest groups. Cleaning up Washington starts with gutting the current lobbying format that is practiced there; not by just deep-sixing dishonest politicians (though that's a good start)...
