Our President's final State of the Union address took place Monday night in front of a joint session of Congress, the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. The speech wasn't by far his last act as leader of our executive branch, but it reminds us that, for better or worse, an era is coming to an end.
"Whatever you think about the actual state our union is in, there is little doubt George W. Bush has profoundly transformed it," writes Michael Hirsch for Newsweek.
I'm sure any student would be hard-pressed to disagree: whether or not you liked what he said about the No Child Left Behind Act and tax cuts, you have to grant that the history books will remember the man.
And his name will be an important one well before those books are printed and charged to students at outrageous prices. His successor will be left to deal with the question of troop deployment, a damaged international reputation, a tax structure that could use updating, and demands for health care from those that will grow old after the baby boomers.
On Monday, The Spectrum endorsed Presidential Primary candidates US Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama. We voted "for progress" and I'm confident that even if neither of these men win the Presidency, progress will be made.
But should the chads be dimpled in favor of Obama (an office favorite), here are three examples of policy changes you can expect from "Mr. Change."
"An energy policy that is so much more aggressive than the one we've got now," as he is quoted on CNN following the Address. Obama's proposed programs favor energy research, "the green jobs of the future" and reducing carbon emissions. He plans on doubling funding for research on "clean energy products" and commercializing energy advances (like technology for solar or wind power) for deployment around the world.
On tax breaks: "Instead of providing an extension of the tax breaks to the wealthiest families, we need to provide tax breaks to the middle class and working class families who've been cut out," Obama said after the Address, disapproving of the "warmed-over policy prescriptions and the extension of the Bush tax cuts that was the centerpiece of his policies."
Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit program will counteract the stress of payroll tax, which spells relief for small business owners who are both the employers and employees of their companies - an issue which is quite literally close to home for me.
Finally, Barack opposes gay marriage like most of his candidate peers. But his call for change includes civil unions, a liberal stance that the Bush administration adamantly opposes.
When Anderson Cooper mentioned Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Obama, the candidate said, "What we share is this belief that we're in this moment in time where we can recapture that sense, that can-do spirit."
It's been a slow eight years, and for the first time since the beginning of this millennium, people are really getting excited about the future. Perhaps the legacy that President Bush is leaving is a wake-up call to his peers and citizens: we can recapture that sense; we can do it.
Where last year people were wondering how much worse things could get, after this Address I find myself wondering what will change and how different it will be. American citizens are once again rallying around the idea of the upcoming election.
Obama or not, the new President has their work cut out for them and a lot of change to make.
"Together, we are changing the tone in the nation's capital," the President said on Monday.
George W. Bush is right. And we couldn't have done it without him.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
