The likes of Dan Rather and CBS constituting the conservative viewpoint on Bill Clinton's state of the union speech commentary, is scary but true. With Peter Jennings on ABC and Tom Brokaw teaming with Lanny Davis on NBC ( MSBNC ), the sane members of the viewing audience could only hope for some objective commentary from ( gulp ) Cokie Roberts and/or Sam Donaldson ( no man, please no... ). With Sammy Sosa in the crowd, the increasingly raspberry glop-like nature of the modern media driven state of the union address, has reached deep and thick proportions. It is no longer about the President making reasonable promises concerning the upcoming legislation for the year and the state of the economy, but a promise any and everything under the sun, because it just doesn't matter if it's realistic or not!

Bill Clinton repeated the same ' save Social Security first ' lie of last year's speech ( I guess he figured it worked once, so...) . He said, " The state of our union is strong ". He put his foot firmly in his mouth, and the Democrats all rose to their feet, when he mentioned his victories for peace in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and the Middle East. I suppose there are still people out there who don't know peace has fallen completely apart at each of those locations, as of this date!

Oh yeah, the standing ovations ( like the one Clinton got for his failed peace efforts from the assembled Democrats ), just got downright laughable. I mean it was jack-in-the-box city or jumping-jack-makes-me-flash. I counted over 50 instances of the old stand up and clap routine, including the entrance, exit and choreographed applause for special guests. There were 28 times that Democrats stood and applauded, with Republicans remaining firmly seated. On 24 occasions, the entire body joined in an ovation. Of note, Clinton mentioned the word " children " at least 19 times ( probably more ).

Clinton mentioned and promised everything imaginable to all special interest groups, with a heavy leftward slant obviously. Oh man, he had the gall to mention the National Census concept of using a computer model instead of an actual count. He lauded this novel new idea, but let's face it, it is not accurate and could lead to intentional corruption.

The State of the Union Address, as given by Bill Clinton, has turned into a complete media joke. We should all just feel lucky that there isn't enough room for Fleetwood Mac to play the House!

- Bongo ( I gotta' go take a shower... )