EDITORIAL: President Bush Vows Sprint to Term's Finish Line

Jan 29, 09:40 AM

Jan. 29--With his State of the Union address sandwiched between presidential primaries in South Carolina and Florida, President Bush focused the nation Monday night on the present, rather than on the future and on the drumbeat for change coming from both Republican and Democratic candidates.

In his last year in office, Bush's annual address lacked the usual grandiose calls for action. After his 2004 re-election, Bush boasted he had earned political capital, which he planned to spend.

He spent the capital on failed attempts to reform Social Security and immigration policies. By 2006, the administration's handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other failed policies, cost Republicans control of both houses of Congress. The president's job approval ratings have hovered below 40 percent for the past two years.

Vowing Monday to sprint to the end of his term, the president laid out realistic and modest proposals in his final State of the Union address. Achievement must be with the help of a Democratic Congress in a highly charged political year.

Coming early in this final year is the encouraging bipartisan approval in the House of a $150 billion economic incentive program to counter increasing signs that the nation is headed into a recession. However, the program faces a challenge in the Senate, where Democrats want unemployment benefits extended and food stamps increased as part of the plan.

"The temptation will be to load up the bill. That would delay it or derail it, and neither option is acceptable," Bush warned.

Bush pressed for the tax cuts he and a Republicans implemented in 2001 and 2003 to become permanent. Likely that won't happen with Democrats in charge and government spending partly blamed for the nation's economic problems.

Bush also pressed for his signature education reforms the No Child Left Behind Act to be extended. But aspects of the program have drawn fire from both Republicans and Democrats.

Supporters argue the president deserved to take a victory lap with the success in Iraq of his "surge" the escalation of troop strength to bring stability to the nation while its government formed.

"Some may deny the surge is working, but among the terrorists there is no doubt. Al-Qaida is on the run in Iraq and this enemy will be defeated," Bush said.

Bush noted that in the six years since the terrorists' attacks on Washington and New York, there have been no similar attacks on the U.S. For that he credits his administration's security policies.

He urged Congress to extend a law that allows expanded electronic eavesdropping. The temporary law expires Friday.

Bush pressed for international initiatives supporting nations struggling to establish democracies, furthering his attempts to broker a peace in the Holy Land, and increasing efforts to combat AIDS and hunger in Africa.

"The time has come for a Holy Land where a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine live side-by-side in peace," Bush vowed.

The tone of Monday's speech was understandably subdued compared with his earlier State of the Union addresses. There is little a lame-duck president particularly one with no apparent heir can achieve with Congress in the hands of the opposing party.

Bush challenged Congress to come up with its own immigration reforms that includes a guest worker provision, and to curb the costs of entitlement programs. He pressed for approval of trade agreements that will expand U.S. markets.

And he warned that he would veto spending bills that include hidden "earmarks" spending on pet projects that bloat the federal budget.

Historians have noted similarities between President Bush and President Truman, who in 1952 was stuck with low approval ratings, an unpopular war and critics in his own party.

Noting the U.S. and entire free world were "passing through a period of grave danger," Truman urged Democratic and Republican politicians to "conduct their fights in a manner that does not harm the national interest."

Like Truman did more than 50 years ago, President Bush urged Congress Monday to complete unfinished business and show Americans that "Republicans and Democrats can compete for votes and cooperate for results at the same time."

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