57% of Americans believe that the nation is on the wrong course. Fewer than 40% of Americans approve of the job that Mr. Bush is doing as President. At this watershed moment of his presidency, with midterm elections ten months away, Mr. Bush last night delivered his most flacid State of the Union address.
Americans are looking for another solution. Last night, while Mr. Bush offered nothing of substance, Tim Kaine convincingly argued that there is "a better way."
Item for item, issue for issue, Mr. Bush proudly re-proclaimed the same list of promises he has left unfulfilled or actively opposed in his presidency. Meanwhile, Tim Kaine showed how Democrats in Virginia have achieved results.
Where Mr. Bush continues to promote an untenable approach to solving the healthcare crisis in America, Mr. Kaine touted Virginia's Better Way: covering 98% of children with health insurance.
Where Mr. Bush laughingly trifled with the idea of bipartisanship and his irresponsible call to make massive tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, Mr. Kaine promoted Virginia's Better Way: long-term architecture of fiscal responsibility created by a bipartisan effort in the state legislature.
Even Mr. Bush's praise of Coretta Scott King was hypocrisy. In contrast, Tim Kaine's entire career is based on his work as a civil rights attorney working to ensure that All Americans participate in the American dream.
Will Vehrs had this to say:
Kaine?s SOTU response was delivered solidly. While it probably didn?t play all that well in Manhattan or Hollywood, I think it played well in Virginia. Instead of the Democratic Party using the fresh-faced Kaine, he used them to strengthen his position here in Virginia. Now Governor Kaine, like Governor Warner before him, has set the terms of what ?bi-partisanship? means and has established himself as the chief arbiter of ?working together.? He?s enhanced the ?competency? meme that Warner skillfully grafted on to the Democrats by giving it a more caring face. Republicans are in a box.
When Tim Kaine came in to office under Governor Mark Warner, he faced the massive deficits and impoverished services left behind by a Governor very much in the mold of George Bush. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine worked with legislators on both sides of the aisle to lift Virginia from the financial quagmire it faced. Together they made Virginia the "best managed state" in America.
The Warner/Kaine model of "government service" and "results that count" shows a powerful alternative to the failed policies of exclusivity that Mr. Bush continues to foist on the American people.
Last night, all of this was portrayed by Mr. Kaine without stridency or anger. Mr. Kaine represents the honest fact that when Americans work together, nothing is impossible. On a day that saw the death of a great leader of civil rights, the end of a balanced judiciary in America, and an exhausted President's weakest call to the status quo, Tim Kaine offered a model for a united America and a better future.
It's unfortunate that on nearly every point Mr. Bush's State of the Union highlighted the need to address problems that he himself has created.
There is a better way. It raised Virginia and it can raise America.