Am I reading in to this?

From the WaPo re: the SOTU

“For years, President Bush and his advisers expressed frustration that the White House received little credit for the nation's strong economic performance because of public discontent about the Iraq war. ..blah, blah, blah.

That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight.


Probably? What do you mean ”probably”? It is his final SOTU!

Is this just a poor choice of words or something more sinister? I truly don’t know but the wording is certainly…odd, don't you think?

Probably.

:scared: Let's hope a little truth didn't slip through.........

The constitution says "from time to time". It's just by recent tradition that it always falls around the same time, once a year.

Good to know. :)

What events or circumstances would prompt another SOTU prior to next January?

(I just don't trust the bastards to leave office quietly)

What irony!

and call WaPo on their BS.

It is most likely a poor choice of words. But it makes me as paranoid as you.

Very odd....

The guy is a complete an utter failure, the (W)orst president in US history.

The guy is so bad, he has made Nixon look good.

he's made ronnie raygun look good.
and boy oh boy, warren g harding is looking peachy. teapot dome? that's it?

You will see more and more little hints that only stick out if you are paying attention.

Pretty soon another Bush term will just seem.....normal.

this will be his SEVENTH??? SOTU?

Really, did he miss a year? I see by google and wikipedia that he did not.

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and now 2008.

According to wikipedia, only Jimmy Carter provided an outgoing (or fifth) SOTU, and that one was in writing in January 1980 (in the modern era).

So this will be W's 8th SOTU, by my count.


here is the beginning text of Bush's 2001 SOTU:

27 February 2001

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress: It's a great privilege to be here to outline a new budget and a new approach for governing our great country. I thank you for your invitation to speak here tonight. I know Congress had to formally invite me, and it could have been a close vote. So, Mr. Vice President, I appreciate you being here to break the tie.

I want to thank so many of you who have accepted my invitation to come to the White House to discuss important issues. We're off to a good start. I will continue to meet with you and ask for your input. You have been kind and candid, and I thank you for making a new President feel welcome.

The last time I visited the Capitol, I came to take an oath on the steps of this building. I pledged to honor our Constitution and laws. And I asked you to join me in setting a tone of civility and respect in Washington.

I hope America is noticing the difference, because we're making progress. Together, we are changing the tone in the Nation's Capital. And this spirit of respect and cooperation is vital, because, in the end, we will be judged not only by what we say or how we say it, we will be judged by what we're able to accomplish.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

(he's been werkin hard and makin progress ever since... :sarcasm:)

 

:eyes:

- Make7

on foreign soil with his black swarm of batshitters.

He seems to be constantly saying (or doing) something to demonstrate how oblivious he truly is. Like making a joke about a "close vote" in the opening of his SOTU address after just getting into office with a 5-to-4 vote.

Although that doesn't upset me nearly as much as when he was making jokes about not being able to find the WMD at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner.

Apparently everything is a joke to him.

- Make7

I did a WTF? on "probably" and didn't go any further.

Isn't anybody competent any more?

as pointed out above. There's nothing preventing him from giving another one before he leaves office.

But as I was pointing out... in the modern era (since FDR) the only President to do this was Jimmy Carter, and he only did so in writing, not as an address to the joint session of Congress.

Hopefully, this will be the 8th and FINAL time we listen to this idiot and see his smirking face.

Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Ford and Carter all did.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sou.php

"Finally, President George W. Bush is set to deliver his next State of the Union Address on January 28, 2008. It is widely believed that this will be his last address before leaving office on January 20, 2009, but assuming this is incorrect. Bush has the right to deliver either a written or oral State of the Union in the days immediately before leaving office in 2009. Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Ford, and Carter chose to do this. Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, chose not to."

he's resigning.

Nope, I was wrong - it seems he delivered one in Feb., 2001.

from his 2001 SOTU with the date and everything.

(The official whitehouse.gov has links to every SOTU except the 2001. Odd, huh?)

because my personal recollection was that there wasn't one, as he had just taken office. I must've mis-remembered.

understandable since he had just taken office in January. But is was an official SOTU as required under the constitution.

the constitution doesn't require an annual one. Just "from time to time".

Yes, this will be juniors seventh SOTU. Yes, he did deliver a speech to the joint session of congress in 2001.
And many web sites identify it as a SOTU message, but it was not. My mistake.

Here is why...

-----------------------------

The State of the Union is an annual message which the President gives to Congress, usually an address to a joint session of Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). It has occurred in January (except for six occasions in February) since 1934. Sometimes, especially in recent years, newly-inaugurated Presidents have delivered speeches to joint sessions of Congress only weeks into their respective terms, but these are not officially considered State of the Union addresses. The address is also most frequently used to outline the President's legislative proposals for the upcoming year. For these reasons, a State of the Union address is generally not given in years in which a new president is inaugurated.

----------------------------

My apologies to the writers and editors at WaPo. They are right, this is juniors seventh. And, apparently, it has been custom in the modern era for outgoing Presidents to issue a written SOTU address to congress, just before leaving office. So junior will get one more chance, should he decide to do it, to polish the turd that has been his mis-administration.

Wapo is technically correct on both details.

so my memory was only half as bad as I thought :D

Appreciate the research - I had a hard time finding confirmation one way or the other (not that I spent a lot of time on it). But the 2001 address on that one site I listed above had an asterisk next to 2001, and I couldn't find what it meant. I figured the asterisk belonged next to Bush's name.

just a whole bunch of websites called his joint address in 2001 a SOTU. Which it was not. Which is why the WhiteHouse.gov site did not have a link to it.

As for the asterisk... that wouldn't belong NEXT to Bush's name, that would BE *'s name. :)

I just didn't put any real time into finding out what was really going on.