SOTU

From the new blog ThinkProgess at the Center of American Progress this quote from Bush's SOTU address:

President Bush said: “To keep our economy growing, we also need reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy. Nearly four years ago, I submitted a comprehensive energy strategy that encourages conservation, alternative sources, a modernized electricity grid, and more production here at home, including safe, clean nuclear energy.“

Several commenters have pointed out that the Bush administration never calls on the natives to lift a finger. He evasively avoids any personal call to conservation, instead usually offering to tough it out himself ("I will personally save millions of barrels of oil by erecting a solar collector on my ranch"). You can see the detached impersonality via the quote of "environmentally responsible energy". With this phrase, Bush basically anthropomorphasized an inanimate object. Energy itself will become more environmentally responsible. Let's hear it for brave Energy. Hip,hip,hooray!

And the next sentence of "encouraging conservation" contradicts what Bush in fact had stated a few years ago: "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption."

More than anything, Bush's whole personna revolves around the goal of being perceived as the exact opposite of Jimmy Carter. He will continue to dance around the edges of displaying Carter-like concern until eventually circumstances force him to confront reality.