US: After outlining his blueprint for a second term in his annual State of the Union speech, US President George Bush leaves Washington this morning for a two-day campaign-style swing across country to take his message to the American heartland.
Mr Bush included a "strategy for success" in Iraq and a radical plan to semi-privatise Social Security in his speech prepared for delivery to the joint Houses of Congress on Capitol Hill.
Looking to his place in history, Mr Bush included in the text high praise for Iraqis who voted on Sunday as the forerunner of democracy in the Middle East. He pledged greater assistance for the Palestinians following their elections, including a reported financial aid package that could total $350 million to bolster development and security.
The speech hailed the Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestinian elections, and called for continuing diplomacy in the standoffs over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.
Mr Bush was scheduled to speak just after 2.01 a.m. Irish time before an audience of House Members and Senators and a gallery of spectators who included one symbolic voter flown in from Iraq and one from Afghanistan.
The 40-minute address, redrafted 17 times, focused on how the US could build the Iraqi security forces and other mechanisms of government to make sure they were successful in building a democracy.
On Sunday, Iraqis voted for a transitional National Assembly to draw up a constitution and prepare for general elections in December. However Mr Bush did not lay out a schedule for an American pull-out as this "is exactly the wrong thing to do at this time," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett.
What that would say to the enemy was, "Sit down, wait until they're going to leave and then strike."
Before going to Capitol Hill last night Mr Bush engaged in another round of telephone diplomacy to build support for his Iraq policy, placing calls to Italian Premier Mr Silvio Berlusconi, Canadian Prime Minister Mr Paul Martin and El Salvador President Tony Saca.
The first half of the speech was dedicated to domestic issues, with the focus on changes to Social Security, the 70-year-old system by which Americans draw pensions and disability benefits, paid for by a tax on wages. For the first time Mr Bush promised that there would be no change in benefits for workers currently 55 and older.
Those under 55 will be able to divert some of their taxes to individual investment accounts, according to Congress members briefed beforehand.
Social Security is projected to start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2018, according to Social Security trustees who say it can guarantee full benefits only until 2042.
The President's message was "We have a critical opportunity here to put together a system, that was just as good for the last century, for the next generation of our children and grandchildren."
Democrats criticised aspects of the speech even before it had been delivered. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, "We all know that the United States cannot stay in Iraq indefinitely and continue to be viewed as an occupying force," according to a televised response recorded earlier. "Neither should we slip out the back door, falsely declaring victory but leaving chaos. We have never heard a clear plan from this administration for ending our presence in Iraq."
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Mr Bush's Social Security plans sound more like "Social Security roulette" than reform. "Democrats are all for giving Americans more of a say and more choices when it comes to their retirement ," the Nevada senator said. "But that doesn't mean taking Social Security's guarantee and gambling with it." Some 15 House Democrats gave their guest tickets for the address to older Americans opposed to Social Security changes.
Mr Bush's address was directed to a nation split down the middle on his policies. Some 50 per cent of Americans approve of his performance and 45 percent do not, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll yesterday. This is just three points above his low of 47 percent last year. Deep partisanship is evident in the 87 per cent of Republicans who approve of his work against 14 percent of Democrats.