I’ve been digesting the President’s address.  It’s something of a mixed bag.  Tax cuts are always good (and that old dog about “tax cuts for the rich” just won’t hunt anymore).  He gives lip service to fiscal responsibility, but then he goes and loads up a bunch of pork (Medicare, AIDS in Africa, mentoring, hydrogen power, etc).  Then there’s the standard boilerplate about how “evil” drugs are.  Sometimes it’s so hard for people to admit when they’re wrong.  If he really wanted to be remembered as a truly compassionate conservative, he’d end this insane war on drugs.

On the positive side he made it clear that a bunch of kvetching from so-called allies won’t deter us from our course:

Yet the course of this Nation does not depend on the decisions of others. Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.

He also throws in support for the resistance in Iran and tells the North Koreans that we won’t be blackmailed.  Then he runs down the litany of evil in Iraq.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where all this goes, but I’d hoped for better news on government spending.  Actually, with all the focus on foreign events, I’d hoped he would focus strictly on that, but it appears that he had to address criticism from the Democrats on domestic affairs.

Update  I don’t pretend to be fair and balanced, so I didn’t bother to watch the Democratic response.  I’m so fed up with them and their class warfare, life’s lottery bullcrap that I can’t watch most of them without getting apoplectic (but don’t assume that I like the Republicans either).  Anyway, Vodkapundit has a few words on the topic.