Two views of the nation

Two distinct views of the United States are on display this week. On one side are the Democratic candidates for president who are battling for their party's nomination. On the other side are the Republicans and President Bush, who made his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.

The presidential nomination battle has lent a voice to Democratic dissatisfaction with the policies of Bush and the Republican-dominated Congress. The Democratic field has pointed out the White House's flawed policies on the war on terrorism as well as the inequities that have resulted from the president's lack of fiscal stewardship. ...

Bush countered the body blows from Democrats in his State of the Union address. In an effort to redirect the nation's attention, Bush focused on any number of proposals, none of which are all that new, or realistically affordable.

Bush's call for more costly government projects and for new tax cuts - as well as extending the ones he's already signed into law - were delivered as if the nation is not already facing ever- increasing deficits along with massive costs for homeland protection. That unreality is the wrong message for these times. ...

The president would have gone a long way in regaining the abused trust of the people of the United States and the world by explaining what went wrong with so many of the supposed reasons for going to war....

Bush, instead, only arrogantly provided more of the same slippery half-truths used to sell the war in the first place. "No one can now doubt the word of America," says Bush, who is apparently oblivious to his administration having to answer for those seeming exaggerations over the past eight months.

No amount of State of the Union promises or spin-control can overcome the reality of the president's reckless agenda. ...

-- The Anniston Star, Anniston, Alabama