The "State of the Union"

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In my last post I challenged Bush supporters to answer the question "What made him so popular." Now I want to hear what you think about the "state of the union." I think we (as a country) are in a bad way right now, and I think it's going to take a long time to fix. But who is really to blame for what's going on? Is it Bush, congress, the people who voted for Bush (twice!)? I'll give my opinion (and if the tomatoes start flying, then so be it), but let me just say for the record that it's for the sake of debate only, not to make enemies! I did not vote for Bush in the 2004 elections, and I was unfortunately too young to vote at all when he won his first term. But I followed the political debates very closely, and was outraged by what I saw and heard. Here was a man (meaning Bush) standing before us who, I think, struggled to answer the questions set, at least in an educated way. He fumbled and stumbled until I felt I had to go read a book just to make sure it was him and not me (not to mention we ended up keeping a dictionary close at hand during all of the debates to try and identify the words he probably meant)! It was then that I knew that he was not the one who should be running our country. My choices in politics tend to be pretty unpopular, as I'm a young black democrat in a primarily republican state. So yeah, I still think Clinton was a good president (couldn't give a rat's you-know-what about his personal life, it's actually a pretty bad mental pic I'd rather not have popping around in my head). Physical urges aside, I think this country experienced the best economy we'd seen in a while. At least, people looked strangely at those who had more than 1 job. Now, it seems you HAVE to have more than one job just to get by, and that's being a minimalist! And not to step on toes, but I think that Bush's attitude and the choices he's made because of that attitude have a LOT to do with how I'm forced to live now! I really resent the lack of judgment he's shown throughout both of his terms, and I resent further that fact that hardly anyone in this country saw what was really going on until now, when it's much too late! I've lost countless friends to this stupid war (I grew up in a military town, and went to college in a military town, so I gained a LOT of military friends). The husband of my closest friend is serving over in Iraq right now, and though I pray a lot these days, I feel as if I'm just waiting for that call to say he's gone. The men and women of the armed forces used to be very proud of the path they chose, and proud to fight for this country. I couldn't ever get into friendly debates with them because they'd defend Bush until the cows came home! But now, even they are questioning why they're being sent abroad! It's something I've never seen from any of the people I've ever known in the military, and it's really scaring me. We have lost more men and women that I even care to think about now (and may now have to send tons MORE to join this stupid effort), the men and women who come home are not even evaluated properly to ensure they can go back to being a normal member of society, our country is spending not millions, but BILLIONS of dollars per month (that's right, per month) to maintain a war effort that isn't helping anyone but the ones who want to see us and all of the regular Iraqi civilians dead, this war has already outlasted the longest world war, we are in debt past our eyeballs at this point, we are looked at as bumbling idiots by the people of other countries, our middle class and lower class have gotten even poorer, and still, after all of this, we are no closer to catching and bringing to justice the terrorists responsible for all of this. So you tell me, what do YOU think about the state of our Union?