To The Very Last, Chimpy Has No Class

The foreshadowing was when, during the customary applauded entrance for his final State of the Union address, George W. Bush encountered a friendly man, I don't know whom, afflicted with male pattern baldness.

Chimpy, the frathouse grand wazoo to the very end, rubbed the man's bald head, right there on worldwide video. I guess that's supposed to be good luck among frat rats. At least this person didn't recoil, a la Angela Merkel. He lucked out there.

Then we had to listen to the speech. We got a lecture on deficit spending from a president who has blown the national debt up to over $9 trillion. This has been done by giving out tax bonanzas galore, mainly to corporations and rich individuals, and by starting an elective war of aggression with a country that had nothing to do with 9-11. (Nor did it have WMDs.) OK, so we knew all this.

Onward.

His course for the next year? He vows to veto "any" increase in taxes, and intends to make the tax "relief" of his administration permanent. "Murkans" know how to use their own money (even as the national debt piles up to alarming levels). There was disingenuous mention of a tax increase of $1,800, for 116 million taxpayers, if this doesn't happen. But there was no discussion of how that average was arrived at, and who gets the bulk of the benefit. There's a good reason for that. This isn't a good time to admit that you're seeking to make a temporary tax bonanza for the rich a permanent one.

Go here for some basic fact-checking.

And of course, involvement in Iraq will continue, as the U.S. continues the noble quest to build a textbook democracy in the Middle East. Maybe one of these years we'll get a chance to start working on that one right here.

He is all for "free and fair elections" in Ukraine and Georgia, and praises the brave people who rose up to demand that in those fledgling democracies. This from a man who lost the 2000 popular vote and then was in essence appointed to the presidency by the Supreme Court. Then, there was Ohio in 2004. And, those Diebold machines that can be easily hacked. ... Has this been the first illegitimate two-term presidency? It will take much time to sort that out.

We heard a lot about a "free" Iraq. Does he mean the one that had no al Qaeda presence until the U.S. invaded? And then quickly became a "trrrist" magnet? That "free" Iraq?

There was predictable exaggeration of progress in that country. He didn't mention that those 80,000 Iraqis who have mounted the "grassroots surge" are people in neighborhood watch groups that have been hired by the U.S. military for $300 a month. Wonder what they'll do when the money runs out?

And of course, he still can't pronounce "nuclear." (nuke-you-ler) I strongly suspect that this has always been for effect. The man was born in New Haven, Conn., to a New England political dynasty, and didn't spend that much of his youth in Midland, Texas. (Just enough to learn how to torture and kill small animals, based on peer accounts.) He went to prep school in Andover, Mass., then Yale, and Harvard Biz. He is said to speak with a more clipped, New England-style accent when in private.

Of course, that doesn't evidence any more intelligence. For that, I'd take Lyndon Baines "Uncle Cornpone" Johnson of Southwest Texas State Teachers College -- warts and all, any day. At least he came by his accent honestly.

This is the most phony, incompetent, amoral lout who has ever occupied this highest of offices. I'm quite aware that he will never see himself this way. Studies have revealed that inept people generally see themselves as quite the opposite.

He said absolutely nothing to allay that impression in this final "State of the Union" bilge. I am thankful that the next time we hear anything like this from Chimpy will be his good riddance, er, farewell address.

Crossposted at Manifesto Joe.