State of the Union 2005

President George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union 2005 address to the Nation on February 2, 2005.

---

Bush Administration Perspective

• Speech writer: Michael Gerson
• Scott McClellan, Press Gaggle, February 1, 2005.
• White House Transcript: State of the Union Address 2005, February 2, 2005.
• White House State of the Union Fact Sheet, February 2, 2005.
• State of the Union 2005-Excerpts, CNN, February 2, 2005.
• Scott McClellan, Press Gaggle, Aboard Air Force One, February 3, 2005.

Word/reaction/TV coverage Count

Word Count
liberty	45
free/dom	33
terror/ism	27
Iraq/Iraqi	27
Social Security	15
democracy	8
Palestinian	5
Afghanistan	3
Audience reaction Count
Applause	68
Standing ovation	44
Audible dissension	2
TV coverage stats
Laura Bush close-up	9
Donald Rumsfeld close-up	4
Condolezza Rice close-up	2
Content analysis
Av. characters p/ word	4.7
Flesch-Kincaid grade level	11.2

• For another State of the Union 2005 tabulation, see "Republicans dominated 11-2 in MSNBC's State of the Union coverage," Media Matters for America, February 3, 2005.

Significant Omissions

• tabulated

Commentary

• Azmi Bishara, "Free for all", Al Ahram Weekly, February 3, 2005.

Contemplating Bush's speeches there is the temptation to discuss words and their meanings. But Bush does not write his own speeches. Commentaries on his inaugural address of 20 January in the US press make it clear that Michael Gerson was responsible for the speech which underwent 22 revisions.
Rarely has the business of ghostwriting and revising presidential speeches been talked about with such candour. Ghostwriting has long been an open secret. Now, though, the American establishment sees no harm in admitting that the president of the world's sole superpower is unable to pen a quarter-hour speech. Nor do people presume he should be capable of this task, or that this is even an issue to begin with. It is all perfectly normal now to see the president's word cobblers in a press interview, offering an exhaustive postmortem of the drafting process.…

There was one sentence in the speech that revealed with spine chilling clarity the ulterior purpose behind Bush's rhetoric: "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one." This must be the most insidiously propagandistic statement I have ever read. Nothing more clearly epitomises this administration's determination to compel the public to identify with the ideology of the state. The American people are to understand that their "deepest beliefs" and their interests are one and the same thing. Taken in the context of this speech, and in conjunction with Bush's other speeches, they should further understand that it is now in America's interests for that most American of beliefs -- liberty -- to be wielded as a primary instrument in foreign policy and the pursuit of imperial hegemony. On this, moreover, Bush is explicit: "Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our nation. It is the honourable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time."
Just in case anyone had not yet realised, Bush informed the American people that their nation had a holy mission and asked them, in the name of national security, to put their hearts and souls into supporting that mission. Imagine an Arab leader pronouncing this in Arabic. It would have our neo-liberals wringing their hands at the very least.…

It is doubtful whether large sectors of the American public realise that they are being mobilised against their own interests, or that their self assertion in the face of degenerate liberal elites has been welded into an ideological cloak for policies that have, and will continue to, rebound against them.
It is their sons and daughters who will die in wars in which they are being urged to do more and sacrifice more, while Bush cannot even take the trouble to mention the name of the country in which the lives of American soldiers are being sacrificed today: "Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfil and would be dishonourable to abandon."

Media Commentary and Analysis

• Will Durst, "The George W Bush 2005 State of the Union Drinking Game. White guy in suit looks to extend winning streak," Working for Change, February 2, 2005.
• Terry McAuliffe, Statement by Terry McAuliffe on Bush's State of the Union, Democratic National Committee, February 2, 2005.
• Azmi Bishara, "Free for all", Al Ahram Weekly, February 3, 2005.
• David Domke and Kevin Coe, "God and the Oval Office. Bush's Brand of Christianity," CounterPunch, February 2, 2005: "What sets Bush apart is how much he talks about God and what he says when he does so. The pattern is so clear that we guarantee Bush will invoke God several times in his State of the Union address on Wednesday."
• Peter Wallstein and Warren Vieth, "Dominance on GOP Agenda. Depriving Democrats of voters and money is among White House policies' other aims," Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2005.
• James Ridgeway, "From Security to Risk in One Easy Bush Plan. President trades American promise for a Wall Street gamble," Village Voice, February 2, 2005.
• Editorial: "State of the Union/A masterly salesman's pitch," Star Tribune, February 3, 2005.
• "State of the Union 2005: Bush Pushes Aggressive Foreign Policy of 'Spreading Democracy'," Democracy Now!, February 3, 2005.
• Lynn Woolsey, "Less Perfect Union: Opportunity Cost," Tom Paine, February 3, 2005.
• Robert L. Borosage, "Less Perfect Union: Shock Jock President," Tom Paine, February 3, 2005.
• William D. Hartung, "Less Perfect Union: Falling Short," Tom Paine, February 3, 2005.
• Robert B. Reich, "Less Perfect Union: Wall Street Divided," Tom Paine, February 3, 2005.
• Michael Tackett, "Bush seeking new kind of deal. Proposals set path opposite to Roosevelt's long legacy," Chicago Tribune, February 3, 2005.
• Antonia Zerbisias, "Bush's liberty song echoes Vietnam tune," Toronto Star, February 3, 2005.
• Sidney Blumenthal, "Utopian cul-de-sac. Bush's take on post-election Iraq was first triumphant, then paralysed. We should be very worried," Guardian UK, February 3, 2005.
• David Corn, "The State of George W. Bush," The Nation, February 3, 2005.
• Stephen Zunes, A Critique of the Most Misleading Statements in the Foreign Policy Segments of President Bush’s 2005 State of the Union Address, Common Dreams, 5 February 2005.

Green Party Perspective

• "On President Bush's 2005 State of the Union," Wednesday, February 2, 2005.

Center for American Progress

• Priority Action Agenda. 2005.
• "President Bush's State of the Union Addresses. American Progress Takes a Look Back at Bush's 2002, 2003 and 2004 speeches," January 31, 2005.
• Ivo Daalder, "The Dangers of Overconfidence," February 3, 2005.
• Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin, Analysis of President's View, February 4, 2005.

External Resources: State of the Union

Historical

• State of the Union Archived Speeches to George Washington, 1790, AmericanPresidency.org.
• State of the Union Archived Speeches to 1945, C-SPAN.org.

2005

• State of the Union 2005 Searchable Version.
• 2005 State of the Union, PBS OnLine NewsHour. Text, Audio, Bush's Speeches 1998-2004.
• State of the Union, Washington Post.
• State of the Union-2005, Voice of America.
• State of the Union, 2005, National Public Radio.

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Bush administration (includes numerous links)
• Georgeland
• State of the Union 2003
• State of the Union 2004
• State of the Union 2006
• State of the Union 2007