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News

President's new role could affect speech

Prof: Status as 'minority president' will lead Bush to focus on issues that could gain bipartisan support

by CASEY WOOTEN
The Daily Cougar

With two years left in office and Congress now under Democratic control, President Bush will take the podium on Capitol Hill tonight to deliver his annual State of the Union address. 

Analysts and a White House spokesman both say the speech will be a departure from the usual format, covering a few key issues in-depth instead of relaying a broad agenda.

During a press conference Thursday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow gave some indication of what the nation can expect from tonight's speech. 

"It's not going to be a typical State of the Union address in the sense of going at great length through all the budget items. It's going to take a comprehensive look at all portions of the budget," Snow told reporters. "It will address major issues, including the war on terror, energy, health care, immigration and education. When it comes to specific items, the president will be discussing within those general categories." 

Analysts say the change is a response to the Democratic takeover of the House and Senate and represents a focus on issues for which compromise might, or must, be reached. 

"He's a minority president now, so he's lost his working coalition," Jim Granato, director of the UH Center for Public Policy and associate professor of political science, said. "So the number of like-minded partisans in Congress are fewer, (and) his ability to get domestic legislation passed is reduced enormously. "You have to focus on some issues where you can reach across the aisle to the moderate elements, and immigration, that's a perfect issue to get moderate Democrats to go along."

President Bush's speech comes two weeks after his nationally televised address to the public in which he laid forth his new Iraq strategy, including a controversial surge in troop levels in Baghdad and surrounding regions. 

The Iraq issue has dominated the Bush administration's attention, particularly in 2006, and analysts say a bulk of the speech may focus on defending his war policies by drawing historical comparisons to bolster support for the war. 

"That's the point of thinking long-term and making the argument that we've had occupying forces … where we've kept them there to maintain the peace," Granato said.

Granato also said the speech will address Iraqis and their government. He said Bush's speech will restate the administration's demand for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to quell sectarian violence.

"(Bush) has said we will leave on our own terms … but he also has more recently said, and it's not necessarily inconsistent, that our commitment is not open-ended," Granato said. "So for example, if Prime Minister Maliki is not doing enough to stop people like (Muqtada al-Sadr) from destabilizing the country, why should the United States spill blood for a government that's not willing to clean up its own backyard? Something like that will probably be mentioned."

On the domestic front, health care will likely be a focus. In his weekly radio address last week, Bush stressed the importance of making private health insurance more affordable. 

Bush said he plans to unveil tax reforms to improve affordability for private health insurance in his speech tonight. 

Granato said the impression the president wants to leave Americans tonight is one of stability and reassurance. Battling a low public approval rating, Bush faces an uphill battle in maintaining the public's confidence. 

"(He wants to assure people) that he is still engaged, that he is still relevant and that there should be a sober assessment of what we're trying to do around the world," Granato said. "Minority presidents don't have an effective base to engage and get their domestic agenda through, so he has to focus on where he has much more influence, and that's the foreign sphere."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced Jan. 16 that this year's Democratic response will be delivered by Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who has a son serving in Iraq and has been a vocal critic of the war. 

The State of the Union address will be televised at 7 p.m. with the Democratic response following.

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