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The Sorry State of a Lame-Duck's Legacy

George W has just presented his last State of the Union speech to the combined US Senate and House of Representatives. As might be expected, lots of hype, panoply, showmanship, platitudes and rhetorical flurries.... but nothing of substance. But that is the present US president! Vacuous and lacking anything remotely reflecting intelligence, vision or an understanding of the world, let an appreciation of the havoc his policies have wrought both in the US and in many places around the world.

The Nation has already delivered it's assessment of the speech:

"As predicted, the president's last State of the Union speech echoed the empty rhetoric of the speeches that came before it. There was an extended call on Congress to make permanent the tax cuts for the rich that have so skewed the nation's economic balance since Bush secured them. There were attacks on spending by a president who has presided over the dramatic bloating of deficits that are the spawn of unsustainable spending. There were more defenses of free-trade pacts that have harmed workers, the environment and communities in the United States and abroad. And there were more fantastical claims about the successes of the disastrous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan."

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