Bush pledges to rally nation to 'great causes'
URL:http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-01-28-stateofunion_x.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush seeks to reassure an anxious nation about the economy and a showdown with Iraq in his State of the Union address, promising to "rally the American people to some great causes." Democrats challenged his approach on both fronts.
For the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks transformed him into a wartime president, Bush faces serious questions about his leadership. Most Americans don't approve of his handling of the economy, polls show, and only a bare majority support his foreign policies — an area where the president enjoyed support of more than 80% a year ago.
"I'm going in front of our nation to talk about the great challenges that face our country," Bush said Tuesday after meeting with his Cabinet. "There's no doubt that we'll be able to handle those challenges because we are a great country."
In the 9 p.m. ET address to Congress and a global television audience, the White House said Bush was drawing from new evidence to argue that even U.N. inspections can't contain the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and its terrorist allies unless Saddam Hussein has a sudden change of heart.
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Facts and history about the State of the Union address:
• The Constitution requires that the president shall ''from time to time give the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.''
• President Washington delivered the first such address, his ''annual message,'' on Jan. 8, 1790.
• The third president, Thomas Jefferson, dropped the pomp that surrounded the early messages to Congress, denouncing them as speeches ''from the throne.'' He delivered the message to lawmakers in writing, a custom that stuck for more than a century.
• President Wilson revived the practice of delivering the annual message in person. ''A president is likely to read his own message rather better than a clerk would,'' he said.
• In 1945 the annual message formally become known as the State of the Union address.
• President Lyndon Johnson shifted the State of the Union speech from the afternoon to the evening to attract a larger TV audience.
• The address was postponed for the first time in 1986 following the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
• President Clinton's State of the Union address in 1999 marked the first time a president addressed a Congress considering the possibility of removing him from office.
AP
But the first half of Bush's address was devoted to domestic policy, a reflection of his desire not to let Iraq overshadow a presidential agenda geared toward the 2004 re-election campaign.
The heart of Bush's domestic agenda is his $674 billion plan to revive the economy. His plans also contain changes for Medicare, medical liability, the environment and energy policy as well as efforts to help religious groups offer federally funded community services, aides said.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke, tapped to deliver the Democratic response to Bush, said that economic recovery would not happen until states and cities receive help from Washington — something missing from Bush's economic proposals.
"People are clearly worried about terrorism and Iraq but those concerns should not overshadow the pressing needs of the people here at home," Locke said.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., urged Bush to give weapons inspectors more information and more time. She said with worldwide attention focused on Iraq and inspections continuing, Saddam "is boxed in."
"He can't put a big toe outside that country. He can't do anything to harm us. And so I believe therefore that we have time to avoid the devastation of war," Boxer, a Foreign Relations Committee member, said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Per tradition, a guest box in the galleries overlooking the House chamber was to be filled with living testimonials to the president's message.
This year's roster of guests included six people who would benefit from Bush's tax-cut proposal, two doctors hurt by high malpractice insurance costs and several people who work for or run aid organizations.
One gallery seat was to be left empty to symbolize "the empty place many Americans will always have" because of the September 2001 attacks, which led to last year's war against the Taliban and allied al-Qaeda.
A firefight in Afghanistan hours before Bush spoke resulted in the deaths of 18 rebels and underscored the dangers of America's widening war against terrorism.
Aides said the speech was the first step in the last phase of confronting Saddam. Bush meets later this week and perhaps next with foreign leaders, including U.S. ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Next week, the administration plans to release what it says is new evidence of Saddam's efforts to hide weapons of mass destruction and make deals with terrorists.
If Bush opts to wage war, a decision that could come in the next two to four weeks, aides say he will address the nation at least one more time to justify his actions.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
