1 - 2% bounce in the polls, at best. Bringing him to 44-45% approval.

Pretty average speech.

He’s at 50 now, before the speech.

Really? Do your own polling now?

41%, Fox News

39%

Time Magazine

1/24-26 11/29-12/1 Approve 41 41 Disapprove 55 53

ABC/WaPo

1/23-26 1/5-8 Approve 42 46 Disapprove 56 52

Cook Political Report

1/22-25 12/8-11 Approve 47 50 Disapprove 42 55

LA Times/Bloomberg

1/22-25 1/15-17 Approve 43 54 Disapprove 50 47

CBS/NYT

1/20-25 1/5-8 Approve 42 41 Disapprove 51 52

CNN/Gallup/USA Today

1/20-22 1/9-12 Approve 43 43 Disapprove 54 53

Hotline Poll

1/12-15 12/12-13 Approve 46 50 Disapprove 53 47

How’s the weather where you live, bp?

No need to be a jackass, Anonymous coward. I saw it somewhere, or at least thought I did.

I believe it was the latest Rasmussen poll that showed the President at 50 Approval/49 Disapproval.

Yup. The link is here, Anonymous coward. Bush was at 50 yesterday, which is what I remembered, 48 today before the speech.

It’s only one poll, but it’s the one I’d seen.

So why’d you leave out Rasmussen in your litany, AC?

Okay. With your Rasmussen 50, the average is 43.4%, between the 10 total polls.

So, my numbers are much closer to the average than yours. Your 50 is an outlier, at best.

My original statement stands. 44-45% post-speech approval.

Fine. Just come out of the shadows and be a man. Or woman. Whatever you are.

Also, I’d like to comment on the no animal-human hybrids bit.

And to that, I say, “Screw you, Bush! I want my monkeyman!”

The President’s speech was good in some places, excellent in others and mundane for the most part. Not tough enough on Iran, wimpy on Hamas. But he made the Dems sit on their hands on the Patriot Act and WOT in general. The party of opposition looked downright impassive to the pressing issues of our time at best and obstructive at worst. And this challenge to our national identity and our way of life Bush did a good job of articulating again to the dismay of the surrender lobby.

But I can’t help thinking that the Dems were even more cowardly than usual in their response. Not that I’m surprised. Here we have a two term President giving his sixth SOTU and all the Democrats can offer up is a former Richmond City Councilman (don’t get me started on Richmond city politics) and one term Lt. Gov who was recently elected Governor. The cowardice of the D’s on this is palpable. Why isn’t one of their “leaders” responding to the leader of the free world? Where’s Harry? Where’s Howard? We get governor McEyebrow to lay out a flaccid response to the president’s speech, with no vision other than “there’s a better way”. Sure. There’s a better way from Richmond to Charlottesville if you take Route 250 than Route 64, but Governor Kaine, who has been in office a full two weeks is really not the guy to guide the Democrat party towards national prominenece. From that I can take some comfort. It was a humiliating choice for this unaccomplished seat warmer to represent the other party. At least he stuck true to the script that had been written for him. Ad libing is fatal in the Democratic party.

The funny thing is that we just went through an electoral campaign in Virginia last November and this is the first time I saw this man speak in entirety. Shame on us Virginians for voting for this shallow tool. Even greater shame that this poor simple fool was enlisted to deliver their national response to the president.

PS I don’t know if you can tell from my writing, but I decided to participate in a little SOTU response drinking game in which I was required to take a shot every time Tim Kaine said, “There’s a better way”. He.….…has.….…now.……convinced.…me. Route 250 is a ‘better way’.

Sorry for the ridiculously long post.

I just re-read my post. I’m bombed. I should have never taken the challenge to drink a shot every time Kaine said, ‘there’s a better way’. I’m bombed. My apologies to all.

Oh yeah. Where was Ted Kennedy? Didn’t see his lovely mug throughout. Pity. Really. The Lion of the Oppressed couldn’t make it.

Aside from the War on Terror, by far the most memorable and affecting phrase was “quiet transformation — a revolution of conscience.”

Here is the the whole passage in context:

In recent years, America has become a more hopeful Nation. Violent crime rates have fallen to their lowest levels since the 1970s. Welfare cases have dropped by more than half over the past decade. Drug use among youth is down 19 percent since 2001. There are fewer abortions in America than at any point in the last three decades, and the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row.

These gains are evidence of a quiet transformation – a revolution of conscience, in which a rising generation is finding that a life of personal responsibility is a life of fulfillment. Government has played a role. Wise policies such as welfare reform, drug education, and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country. And everyone here tonight, Democrat and Republican, has a right to be proud of this record.

Yet many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture, and the health of our most basic institutions. They are concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage. And they worry about children in our society who need direction and love … and about fellow citizens still displaced by natural disaster … and about suffering caused by treatable disease.

As we look at these challenges, we must never give in to the belief that America is in decline, or that our culture is doomed to unravel. The American people know better than that. We have proven the pessimists wrong before – and we will do it again.

It may be thought of as a better speech as time passes. I believe hardly anyone ever made a noise after Lincolns Gettysburg address. In fact Lincoln said to an advisor “It is a flat failure and the people are disappointed.”” But the subjects of the speech definetly define our future.

Kaine was used because he won a “red state” election, at least according to the Dems. The truth is he won an election in a state who’s governor for the past 5 years was a Democrat.

Because he doesn’t have a far-left, anti-war, anti-American tax-and-spend moonbat record that makes him automatically unappealing to a majority of the voters. Yet.

Actually, as LT Gov, he helped shove through some pretty big tax increases in Virgninia. When it was shown that every dollar of it ended up in a surplus, and the rate should be cut back the answer was no. He’s proposing plenty of new spending to make sure the surplus isn’t an issue for long, though.

CP, You are absolutely right about that abominable tax increase and subsequent spending in Virginia. I loved how he phrased his reference to the largest tax increase in the Commonwealth’s history as ‘reforming the budget’. And Mr. Kaine wasn’t in office a week before he proposed yet more tax increases to pay for transportation upgrades. How much do you want to bet that this will include social engineering by creating more HOV lanes and public transportation, none of which will help anyone outside of Northern Virginia and maybe Tidewater. The rest of the state will get nothing.