WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Overall, President Bush's State of the Union was received favorably by a sample of speech watchers interviewed by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation immediately after his 50-minute address to a joint session of Congress.

But the poll showed that Bush registered his lowest "very positive" post-State of the Union reaction of his presidency. Bush reached a high water mark of a 60% "very positive" response immediately following his 2005 speech. In 2006, 48% of speech watchers described his address as "very positive."

As for Tuesday night's speech, only 20% of those polled had a "negative" reaction to Bush's speech, while 41% walked away with a "very positive" feeling about the speech and 37% had a "somewhat positive" reaction.

A bare majority of Americans who watched the speech said they were confident that the U.S. would achieve its goals in Iraq; 46% were not confident. Compare that to the 2004 State of the Union, less than a year after the start of the Iraq war, when 71% of people who watched that speech expressed confidence about Iraq.

He asked for a chance to see if the new strategy for Iraq will work. We have to give him that chance, there are NO other options. I liked Webb's response... I frankly am sick of Conservatives touting the economy message... Maybe it is good for Rich Republicans, but not for many other Americans...

When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.

Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.

In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.

In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy ­that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.

I also liked his very poignant comments on the war...

I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me for more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air Force captain, flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent us the picture from Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home. When I was a small boy, I used to take the picture to bed with me every night, because for more than three years my father was deployed, unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas or in bases where there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again, as my father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his footsteps, serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well, serving as a Marine helicopter pilot. My son has joined the tradition, now serving as an infantry Marine in Iraq.

Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues, those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death, we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.

We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us ­ sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.

The president took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable ­and predicted ­disarray that has followed.

The war's costs to our nation have been staggering. Financially. The damage to our reputation around the world. The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism. And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.

The truth is that we are asking too much from our men and women in Uniform, some of them have been sent on a third tour of Iraq. And while few will say it, I will... How many of those soldiers, or their families are beginning to wonder... "How long will my luck last? When is my number going to come up?"

As has often been discussed here, the Chickenhawk argument becomes more and more compelling, the longer this war of choice lasts... How can we continue to ask the FEW to continue to make these sacrifices, while the Presidents own children party in Cabo San Lucas, and some young, obviously fit Conservative Pundits, continue to cheer from the sidelines...

No, we cant leave Iraq in a state of civil war, especially one that we enabled... So I am all for giving this latest effort a chance. But it is fair and just to hold Bush accountable for the disaster, even if some are still living in the fantasy world that says, "It is not that bad in Iraq."

And whats up with the "Democrat Majority," thing... Dude you lost. Your party had it's ass handed to it in November. You are the most unpopular President in history. Your administration is winding down to one just slightly less disgraceful than Richard Nixon's. Wipe the smirk off your face and get some maturity... The comments to Speaker Pelosi were nice, but the silly little snipe at the Democratic Party was just another example of the arrogance that led to your current position... Get over it!

As far as the rest of the speech... I don't take much stock in SOTU Addresses. They are usually just laundry list of shit that never happens. I have no reason to expect that any Bush's list will pass either. And the proof is in the fact that most of his previous ones have not...

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Posted by: deadissue at January 24, 2007 08:26 PM