The most important speech of the next four years

Assuming that there is no national disaster and that the war in Iraq continues it's present trend toward the positive, the State of the Union address President Bush will be delivering today is the single most importnat speech he will give for the rest of his presidency.

I say that without hesitation because the president has basically mortgaged his political future and his legacy on giving America the opportunity to make social security work for them, instead of working for social security. I am excited and apprehensive when I think about the speech tonight. We know he is going to focus on this issue, and as such this will be the first time all of America will be able to hear his vision. It is vital that he nail it, and that he puts seniors at ease and paints a picture of an ownership society that all intelligent Americans desire.

Here are a few articles to check out:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050202/D880CIA00.html

Brendan Minter offers some advice to the president at www.opinionjournal.com

inside Washington the conventional wisdom is that Mr. Bush needs to embrace
a "bipartisan" solution. The hard reality is that Mr. Bush will have to be
"partisan," because the Democratic Party is not negotiating in good faith. ..By
2030 there will be barely two workers for every retiree drawing a Social
Security check. That's a system that cannot long financially sustain itself. The
way out is to take advantage of what Albert Einstein called the eighth wonder of
the world: compound interest. By creating personal retirement accounts--allowing
Americans to steer a sizable portion of their Social Security taxes into a
401(k)-type account, where individuals can pick which mutual funds to place
their money in--Social Security can start harnessing the power of the economy.
..But until those serious Democrats return, President Bush is left with the
reality that the only way to save Social Security is to pursue a partisan bill,
while continuing to take his message to the people. By stirring up the voters,
the president may get as many as two dozen Democrats to come along in the House
and the half dozen he needs in the Senate. But he'll get that only if the
doesn't cede ground on the fundamental reform--large personal accounts, funded
and controlled by individuals. Partisanship gets a bad wrap, but sometimes it's
essential. (http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110006237)