Well….

White House officials said that preparations for the speech this year had been slightly more pressured than last, when Mr. Bush gave his address a week later, on Jan. 28. “So the speechwriters were even more stressed than usual,” the senior administration official told reporters.

Wouldn’t it be nice if he could just go on television and talk about what is happening and what he plans without carefully crafted speeches and “practicing with a teleprompter”?

But, after all, he is “above the fray” — meaning he doesn’t live in our world. He has corporate concerns to worry about.

All quotes in this blog entry (except the italicized one below, which is a paraphrase) come from a New York Times story where a White House Republican tells the press that the State of the Union address is being delivered now, rather than another time, because it’s keyed to trying to bump the Democrats out of the news. The expectation is that news stations will have less time to show people information about the Democrat caucuses now underway. More time will be spent discussing the President’s State of the Union address and less time will be available for Democrats to talk.

The same story also notes that Bush will deliberately avoid talking about domestic issues. (For those who don’t already know this, domestic issues are the ones that affect the day-to-day lives of Americans; domestic issues are issues internal to the United States, as opposed to foreign affairs, which are focused on issues outside the United States.) White House officials are pointing out that Democrats have many advantages regarding domestic issues. So instead of talking about domestic issues, about which the President couldn’t actually care any less than he already does, he will talk about his “visionary” role as a leader when it comes to making war on other countries. (That’s not my biased reporting, folks. Go read what the White House is saying yourself.)

The thing I like about these kinds of stories is that White House officials and other political leaders virtually say right out loud, “We’re going to do the best we can to distract the American public.” And, yet, in spite of this warning, the American public falls for it.

This is why the Founding Fathers were afraid of democracies and governments. (See “The New Republic, 1783-1789“, a part of History 121: United States History I: Discovery through the Civil War, available online.)

Don’t take my word for it, folks. I can’t say that enough. Read some history yourself. Then take a look at what’s happening around you. Then just ask those two questions: 1) Are you better off under the Bush Administration? and 2) Is our country better off under the Bush Administration?