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Jacquie Brasher
My pain threshold for watching President Bush speak on TV is about three minutes. Therefore, I hardly watched his State of the Union address last week since I don't like pain. I only watched to see the historic words "Madam Speaker" uttered for Nancy Pelosi. That was worth the discomfort. The President himself is now dealing with a Democratic House and Senate and wanting to "work" with all. What else can he do? Well, he can keep vetoing everything in sight and incite a rebellion, I guess. Maybe that would be fun. (A bloodless rebellion, of course, since violence equates pain and I'm not into that sort of thing.) Since I couldn't bring myself to watch him on TV mispronounce "nuclear" for the millionth time, I opted to read about his speech online instead. I knew that he was going to ask Americans to reduce gas consumption by 20 percent and it struck me as ironic; a man who was raised in a family of oil barons wants the American people (who are "addicted to oil") to quit using so much gas. Why was this wonderful proposal not made at the beginning of his presidency? Now, all of a sudden, it's let's "confront the serious challenge of global climate change." Look, I'm all for less gas guzzling and a turn towards alternative fuels. It just smacks of hypocrisy, though, that this sort of lightbulb brilliant-idea is introduced so late in the Bush Administration, an administration that has yet to acknowledge global warming. But nothing they do surprises me anymore. Any cabinet that only watches Fox News is a cabinet with blinders on. Speaking of blinders, no prizes for guessing which part of the horse's anatomy I think they all resemble. I'm looking forward to 2008. I have to believe that something good will come out of all of the muck and grime we've been swimming in for the last seven years. Have we not paid our penance? Isn't it time to let in some fresh air? Have we not suffered enough? Right now, Sen. Hillary Clinton has the most money in her presidential quest, but Sen. Barack Obama seems to have more charisma and chutzpah. Also, John Edwards has announced his candidacy, and he's got a solid chance. It's a little early to start speculating, but I think these three might be the front runners. Then again, Sen. Joe Biden is a strong candidate, too. Like I said, it's too early to tell and we're all going to be pretty exhausted by all the campaigning anyway. I think the next two years will be exciting, frustrating, tiresome and mostly volatile. But, hopefully, change is in the air and we, as a nation, can begin our long journey on the road to healing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.-- Jacquie Brasher is senior staff writer for The Forest-Blade and can be reached at jacquie@forest-blade.com
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