My SOTU address predictions:
Prediction #1- Bush, with the gleeful support of all the ‘fiscal conservatives’ in congress, will propose mammoth new spending programs, forgetting once again that they are fiscal conservatives.
Prediciton #2- Anything that is not a textbook example of profligate spending on an unneeded social program will be assailed by Democrats as raping the social security trust fund. Everything else (drug benefits for the geezers, etc.) will be assailed as not fully funded, proof that Bush is not a compassionate conservative.
Prediction #3- Anything Bush says or does not say about Enron will be determined to be proof of his complicity in the scandal by the idiots on tv.
Prediction #4- Democrats and Republicans will be united on the war on terrorism, and Hillary will have fat calves.
Prediction #5- At least once after the speech, Chris Matthews will gush how much Bush has grown, and then attempt to compare him favorably to someone who normally churns my stomach (2-1 odds it is John F. Kennedy, 4-1 it is FDR, 8-1 Bill Clinton).
Prediction #6- Gephardt will appear nasal and whiny in his response.
Prediction #7- Chuck Schumer and Bob Toricelli will clap as loud or louder than most Republicans.
Prediction #8- The most contentious issue discussed tonight will be National Missile Defense. This will be the one issue to get the pundits and the leftists (pat Leahy, etc.) really hopping mad, and they will scream that Bush is trying to use the war on terrorism to advance Star Wars. Maureen Dowd will have a tizzy in her next column. At least one person will point out that the World Trade Center was not destroyed with a missile.
That is it…