Lame duck president, lame duck address

Last night's State of the Union Address was exactly what many feared it would be: a lame-duck speech from a lame-duck president.

With his approval ratings hovering just above 40 percent -- the lowest for a second-term president since Nixon -- President Bush failed to present the "bold initiatives" he had hoped to.

Spewing grandiose statements regarding security, peppered with Biblical allusions and the fire-andbrimstone rhetoric for which he is known, Bush laid out very few actual plans for change.

Throughout his entire speech, which ran just under an hour, Bush called for only two original initiatives.

While Bush's proposed immigrant-worker initiative will most likely fail, his initiative to bolster funding for sustainable energy sources and research proved a surprisingly hopeful step. One wonders, however, how Bush will finance this sort of energy research with the $14 billion of tax cuts he intends to make?

Despite discouraging calls for the reinstatement of the USA PATRIOT Act and weak justifications for his "executive decision" to approve increased wiretap surveillance, Bush's speech made an announcement that should positively effect the UW. In order to remain competitive in the global economy through technology, Bush committed to increasing funding for the development of nanotechnology and computer science -- two areas for which the University is renowned.

If UW students took away anything from Bush's address, it should be his relative silence towards higher education, especially in regard to financial aid cuts. Save for the mention of expanding the highly criticized "No Child Left Behind Act, " Bush neglected to present a plan to help more individuals attend college and competitively contribute to the U.S. workforce.

Perhaps, in the 31 drafts Bush's address went through, we simply weren't a high priority.