State of the Union: Bush Ignores Family Issues

Hmm... it would have been nice to have the previous speech's graph as well. I remember seeing it at the time.

After reading the full speech, I think Bush either has realised or has been told by his advisors that his previous policy of appealing exclusively to the political right and the religious was starting to fail by alienating the moderates... this would be a problem next election, when those moderates wouldn't want to support the candidate of a party that they think is dominated by fanatical christians. This is why he has droped mention of many issues which are of interest only to the right: Abstinance, abortion, marriage, values (Whatever they are) and such.

He also knows that he no longer needs to appeal to the religious - because that particular segment would vote for him no matter what he said rather than vote for the democrats. There is some real loathing there.

That is to say he is saying what he believes people want to hear, not what he actually intends to do.

An old joke comes to mind. How do you tell if a politician is lying?

His lips are moving.