Folks,
Here’s
the second.
Grade the State of the Union speech and then mail Bush his report
card! It’s more fun than just yelling at the TV. Serving suggestion: invite some
friends over, pretend it’s the Super Bowl, watch it over snacks and then compare
your grades at the end!
Let’s
make it even more fun: send me your grades too, and I’ll compile them and send
around the tallies to the list.
—–Original Message—–
From: TrueMajority [mailto:alerts@truemajority.org]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 11:58 PM
Subject: You be the Judge, Grade Bush’s State of the Union Address
Leave No President Behind
Grade the State of the Union
Address,
Then Send the President His Report Card
It started off as a good idea. The constitution requires the President
"from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the
union." Unfortunately, the State of the Union address has become an annual
spectacle filled with spin and distortion punctuated by thunderous applause
from the President’s people. Somehow the real "state of the union"
never really gets discussed, not even "from time to time."
Maybe the problem is that Presidents don’t know what we think about these
speeches. Maybe all they hear is the applause and raves from their staff and
donors so they think they’ve done a good job.
This year we want to change that. We’ve created a report card for you to use
to grade the President’s performance. He says he likes testing and
accountability, so he should appreciate this. It’s easy, just print out this
page and give him a grade from A to F for each section while you watch his
speech. When you’re done, share his test results with him by just dropping it
in the mail to the White House (address at the bottom).
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Preparing for the State of the Union,
Andrew Greenblatt
Head Geek, TrueMajority.org
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P.S. For a nicer printout you can get a PDF version here:
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Report Card
State of the Union Address
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Give a high grade for clearly focusing on the big picture. Watch out for
"The Spin" and subtract for only talking about side issues that make
him look good. Give a failing grade for using lies or misleading statements.
Extra credit should be awarded for offering up real solutions to our nation’s
problems and facing up to our most difficult challenges.
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Subject
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Grade
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Economics
The Big Picture: During the President’s term the number of jobs in
this country has actually declined by over 2 million. The poor have gotten
poorer. Record deficits have kick-started growth, but recent gains in jobs
aren’t even enough to cover the number of new workers looking for jobs due to
natural population growth.
The Spin: Recent economic growth is a sign of better things to come.
The Lies: Everyone got a tax cut and the rich and poor benefited
equally.
Extra Credit: Give the President extra credit if he admits that the rebound
in the economy is being fueled by record deficits that will eventually choke
the economy if we don’t change things soon.
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Social Studies
The Big Picture: After 9/11 everyone wanted to help us, now almost
nobody does. Osama is still on the loose and our bullying overseas adventures
are fueling Al Qaeda recruiting.
The Spin: The President is taking strong and decisive action. We
haven’t had an attack on our soil since 9/11 and unnamed evildoers have been
thwarted.
The Lies: Iraq was involved in 9/11.
Extra Credit: Give the President extra credit if he admits that last
year’s State of the Union was all about Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction
that did not exist.
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Health
The Big Picture: We do have a new Medicare benefit for prescription
drugs. Unfortunately it was done in such a way only drug companies could
love. Heck, the new law actually makes it illegal for states to join together
and negotiate lower drug prices. Meanwhile, 44 million Americans don’t have
any health insurance. That’s an increase of about 4 million since President
Bush took office. The rest of us are paying more for the coverage we do have.
The Spin: The Medicare drug benefit is great.
The Lies: We can’t afford to give everyone health insurance.
Extra Credit: Give the President extra credit if he admits that we
are the only wealthy nation in the world without universal health insurance.
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Environmental
Sciences
The Big Picture: Changes by the Bush administration are making the
air dirtier, the forests shrink, and the globe warmer.
The Spin: These changes won’t really hurt us but will help the
economy.
The Lies: Letting power plants pollute more leads to "clear
skies," letting lumber companies cut down forests saves them, we don’t
know why the earth is warming.
Extra Credit: Give the President extra credit is he simply admits
the planet is warming and we share some of the responsibility.
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The Three Rs
The Big Picture: The President gave the schools a whole bunch of
expensive new requirements but didn’t provide any way to pay for them.
The Spin: The President gave the schools a whole bunch of new
requirements.
The Lies: Giving schools a whole bunch of expensive new requirements
without any way to pay for them will make kids smarter.
Extra Credit: Give the President extra credit if he proposes money
to pay for the new requirements.
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Arts and Crafts
The Big Picture: So much of the State of the Union Address is about
image. The President will be prepped by pros to read a speech written by a
team of wordsmiths. All the while he’ll try to come across as a regular guy,
only smarter.
The Spin: No, really, he’s just a regular guy, only smarter.
The Lies: He’s a regular guy. He’s smarter.
Extra Credit: Give the President extra credit if he doesn’t
cynically exploit someone who actually did something heroic by putting them
in the visitor’s gallery and pointing to them during the speech.
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The President says he is deeply committed to accountability, testing, and
reporting. This is your opportunity to grade his performance as our country’s
leader. So when you are done grading the speech you can mail this report card
to him at:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
