state of the union

Last night the news people said that George, and, yes, we're on a first name basis, spoke for about an hour. If you had seen or heard the address, you'd know that this simply can't be true. He may have spoken for twenty-five minutes in mostly sentence fragments because the assembled would not stop applauding, standing up, sitting down, shaking fingers across the aisle. It reminded me of singing The Noble Duke of York in VBS (pun intended) -- or being confused in a foreign church service as to when you're supposed to stand or kneel or stand and speak. In general it seemed awkward and forced.

Meanwhile, The Hater would talk back to George. He'd argue with him. He'd shake his finger at the screen. He'd gasp and poke me, saying, Did you hear that? Did he really just say that? This brought back memories of being very young in Summertown, TN, and looking at the green shag carpet as Daddy yelled at Ronald Regan on tv. Some things never change.

The Hater's brief objection: George Bush decieves people. Example from his speech: Bush proudly claimed that we have, in the last two and a half years, created 2.5 million new jobs... which sounds good. It's actually true, but he neglected to mention that since the beginning of his Presidency (five years ago), counting the new jobs that have been created the last two years, there's still a net loss of two million jobs. This means that in the first two and a half years of the five years W Presidency, the economy lost 4.5 million jobs. If you've ever been to Vegas, that sill means you're down. He presented the info like he had done something astonishing with the economy, but that's simply not true. The Hater says there were many, many other misrepresentations, but he's not feeling like a line-by-line now.

Back to the green shag carpet... It really upset me when Daddy would yell at Ronald Regan. I was too young to understand why he was upset, but I knew that he was the President, and there's an element of magic to the Presidency. You're the boss of the whole country, you get to live in a big white house, there are people around you whose whole purpose is to take a bullet for you, and you interrupt very good television shows to give boring speeches.

There's a part of me that wants to believe in the magic. I want to believe that the President has secret information in a big manilla enevelope marked CONFIDENTIAL that he needs to know to do his job. I want to believe that the decisions that are made that I percieve as stupid are really smart decisions -- and I'd agree with him -- only if I knew what was in that envelope. I sincerely want to believe in the magic.... that there's secrets behind the idiot smirks and dumbass decisions. I want to think that you should sit on the green shag carpet and not yell at the President on tv because he's THE PRESIDENT, and therefore part of the magic.

But this Presidency, George, this Presidency is really making it hard for me to believe in the magic. I need to see the flash of a manilla envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL or TOP SECRET or THE GREATER MEANING TO LIFE or THE ANSWERS... I need a sign that you know what you are doing.

Call me Mulder; I want to believe. Unfortunately, my inner Scully wants the facts... and the facts I've seen lead me to believe your Presidency has been disappointing. And this time? This time, George, my inner child sitting on the green shag carpet isn't crying because someone's yelling at you on tv.

She's crying because you deserve it.