Tonight, George W. held his fourth primetime address of the nation since coming to power. His address reinforced some of the major problems faced by this country. The main purpose of the address was twofold:
- To reassure the American people that he would deal with the astronomically high gas prices
- To present a high-level plan for addressing the future deficit that social security would face.
The former of these frustrates the hell out of me. Petrol (gas) hit a record price of $2.06 in the US last May. At today's exchange rate, that equates to £1.08 per gallon, or £0.28 per litre. The current price in the UK is £0.84 per litre, 200% greater. So US fuel is in a crisis despite costing a third the price of that in the UK.
While Bush talked about renewable energy sources, by far his main focus was on working with the oil-controlling countries to increase supply to address the price crisis. Very few of the 45 minutes' questioning focused on the matters raised in the prior 10 minute address. Instead, they focused more on Iraq, North Korea, Bush's troubles among colleagues in the Washington D.C. area and the like.
On foreign policy, he never fails to disappoint me with his insular approach. He always mentions the need to address terror on foreign shores before it affects his home nation. Although Blair has his faults, I can't imagine him contemplating such a line. Meanwhile, Bush's lack of an exit strategy from Iraq was justified by proposing that having one would give the enemy an edge. This simply isn't worthy of a comment.
Finally, having talked about the need to continue to deliver against the No Child Left Behind policy, he still seems unable to pronounce nuclear.
