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Opinion

Bush's lofty ideas still need a plan

Matt Bean
Opinion Columnist

The day approximately 49 percent of the voting population was dreading came and went Thursday, and George W. Bush was finally inaugurated for his second term.

Despite a few references to God that I'm sure will ruffle some feathers, his speech went off without a hitch and sounded pretty solid. Everyone knew going in that he was a deeply religious man, and a number of people speculate that was even a critical factor in his re-election. 

For a guy whose first term was saturated by a controversial war in Iraq that is still not resolved and whose cabinet lost a number of key members shortly after he won his second election, he's pretty idealistic. In fact, he calls on us -- the American people -- to be idealistic, too.

"America has need of idealism and courage because we have essential work at home -- the unfinished work of American freedom," Bush said. Wow. Just, wow. I bet his speechwriter went to a great school, like Harvard, or Johns Hopkins, or Houston Community College or something.

Wait a minute, aren't we already free? I mean, I knew the Patriot Act was pretty restrictive, but I didn't think it went that far ...

"In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty," he continued.

Oh, so he's going to turn this into an Iraq thing. Gotcha.

"By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear," Bush poignantly stated.

Okay, so it wasn't an Iraq thing, I apologize.

To his credit, I will admit the speech sounded great. In fact, I listened to it twice. Who doesn't want liberty? Who doesn't want that whole icky Iraq situation to be over? Who doesn't want terrorists to tremble in fear at the mention of Bush's name?

He might as well have spent a half-hour discussing how he liked to pet kittens and feed baby ducks, though. Nobody, not even his staunchest opponents, can oppose issues like better education and more jobs.

There needs to be a stop to the style-over-substance approach that plagued the pre-election campaigning.

I advocated Bush throughout the election because, at the very least, we knew what to expect from him and we knew what he was capable of. He made promises and followed some of them through, and we experienced the results. Some were good; some were bad. 

The problem with John Kerry was that he never took a solid position or gave a real plan for anything, and since his history proved to be just as vague upon examination, I decided he wasn't someone I could trust and said so.

So, for better or worse, Bush has the ball again. While I realize that an inauguration speech is supposed to be upbeat and hopeful, as opposed "I promise every girl a pony, and my eyes shoot glitter and rainbows" approach, it wouldn't hurt to give the people a tangible plan to look at.

He needs to outline the specifics for each of his ideas and let the people know how he plans to accomplish everything he has so boldly promised.

Just cross your fingers and hope that "universal tax cut" doesn't appear anywhere on the list.

Bean, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at me@mattbean.com.