My predictions:
1. President Bush will say that war with Iraq is now justified. We have all the evidence we need from Hans Blix's report. Iraq has not disclosed the whereabouts of weapons that we know they have, based on earlier inspections.
2. President Bush will not declare a war, or signal that action is imminent. He will ratchet up the pressure, but don't expect any call for war. Also, I don't expect any bombshell revelations in this speech, instead a summary of what we know so far. The "smoking gun" won't be delivered for another 3 to 4 weeks. The reason is simple. Never back a rat into a corner unless you're ready to kill it, because any cornered animal will fight with everything it has. Think about it; if we released intelligence documenting the precise location, type, and disposition of Hussein's WMD, he would have only one choice: use 'em or lose 'em. Once the "smoking gun" is public, the time for talking is over.
3. President Bush will defend his economic stimulus package, calling on Congress to act in a bipartisan manner to quickly enact the package of tax cuts and spending initiatives. He will place particular focus on his plan to give $3000 to folks to be used to help find work. I'm tempted to get fired just to get the $3000.
4. Contrary to the wishes of Richard Hoagland, President Bush will not announce an initiative to produce nuclear powered spacecraft for a flight to Mars. But it's a nice thought.
5. We'll see the usual programmed ovations, both partisan and bipartisan. That's one part I could live without. I wonder what penalty you pay to your party if you stand when you shouldn't?
6. Immediately after the speech, the talking head's will all repeat what the speech said, reading from their annotated copy, given to them well in advance. For this, they get paid the big bucks. After them, the "analysts" will come on and the ones on the right will praise everything the President said, while the ones on the left will curse it. There will be no meaningful analysis.
7. The Democratic response will be muddy, emotional, filled with worn out rhetoric. It will attack President Bush's plan, but offer no alternative. If the Dems had a viable alternative, then one of the Presidential hopefuls would be giving the response.
Posted by Rich at January 28, 2003 6:24 PM