Editor's note: CNN political contributor J.C. Watts Jr. joins us tonight as a guest-bloggerI think the speech was very strong on national security, an issue in which President Bush is strong and Democrats are weak.
The fact that Cindy Sheehan was arrested is another sign to the American people that Democrats are not serious about national security. It plays into the perception that Democrats are not prepared to defend you. That's not to say Republicans don't have a perception problem too. Republicans are perceived as not caring about poor people.
The president has to stay on the national security point often. Progress is being made in the war against terror.
As for Katrina, the American people saw that there were mistakes made on the federal, state and local level. The president said that he takes responsibility for the mistakes of the federal government. He's got a chance to improve, to rebuild those communities.
The State of the Union gives the president an opportunity to pivot. He can take all the good news -- that we're winning in Iraq, that we haven't been hit since 9/11, that we have low unemployment and low inflation, that we collected $100 billion more in tax revenues than we expected -- and make his case to the American people.
The Democrats are an opposition party and this is politics. That's why the president's numbers are where they are -- the opposition has framed the issues. But when the president is out there and framing the issues, he is better off. He did that in this speech. It gives the American people some confidence.