-By Warner Todd Huston
Give CNN points for stating the obvious, if points are deserved for such a prosaic report. But, don’t forget that by doing so, it is their gleeful kick in the ribs to George W. Bush and that particular aspect was the goal in the first place for reporting that the race for the White House “overshadowed” Bush’s State of the Union speech. From the headline to the last word of the piece, there is little by way of new or prescient “analysis” relayed in a report half of which delights to say how supposedly irrelevant Bush has become. Proclaiming, Analysis: Bush overshadowed by presidential race, CNN doesn’t give us much by way of thoughtful “analysis.”
Most striking to me about President Bush’s final State of the Union address Monday night was how unsurprising it was. … This is a president who had previously used this same stage of a packed House chamber to dramatically talk about an “axis of evil” to build the case for war in Iraq or to launch massive domestic initiatives like Social Security reform. But this time he offered little that was new or bold.
This is analysis? Bush has less than a year of his term left, what “massive domestic initiatives” could he really expect to “launch”? It isn’t very cogent analysis to observe that Bush’s days of “massive initiatives” are practically over, here. But, then CNN’s Ed Henry acts as though he realizes that his first few lines and his headline are all puffery with his follow up…
In fairness to the president, his hands are fairly well tied as he begins his final year in office. With a Democratic Congress, he’s unlikely to get to very much of his agenda enacted. And truth be told, if he had walked up to the rostrum and outlined 10 complicated new initiatives, I’d be writing today about how unrealistic Bush was being.
OK, so why the denigrating headline and the first few lines that tease Bush for showing how useless he is? Why else but to give Bush a black eye over something even the writer himself realizes is a pointless distinction.
Continue reading “Bush ‘Overshadowed’ By Primaries… One More CNN Kick Before He Leaves”