Tom Fudge: Last night, George W. Bush, for the first time in his presidency, addressed a Congress that was controlled by Democrats. He received applause at many points in the speech. And politicians on both sides of the isle stood and clapped as he talked about health care, energy policy and the fight against disease.
But about half of the speech focused on terrorism and national defense. And most of that focused on the war in Iraq. The applause became quite thin as the president reiterated his plan for increasing American troop presence in Iraq.
In the Democratic response to the speech, Virginia Senator James Webb chided Bush. He said America was now being held hostage to the disarray in Iraq that was caused by the president’s wrong-headed policy.
Guests
- Michael Smolens , politics editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune .
- Ron Elving, supervising senior Washington editor for NPR News, where he directs coverage of the capitol and national politics.
- Ron Bee, director of the Charles A. Hostler Institute on world affairs at SDSU, and an expert on global conflict.
- Gregory Knoll, director of Consumer Center for Health Education and Advocacy.
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Rob Davis,
environmental reporter for voiceofsandiego.org.
