The president's address

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In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Bush delivered a strong defense of his policies and a blueprint for advancing freedom at home and abroad. Mr. Bush made a compelling case that in the wake of September 11, his policies of targeting Islamist terrorists and the regimes that support them -- rather than retreating from our duties in the hope of an easier life -- are the way to protect the United States from future attack.

The president emphasized that retreating into "isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting, yet it ends in danger and decline." And he took on those who criticize his efforts oppose tyranny abroad as foolish idealism: "On September the 11th, 2001, we found that problems originating in a failed and oppressive state 7,000 miles away could bring murder and destruction to our own country."

Dictatorships, Mr. Bush noted, invariably tend to "shelter terrorists, feed resentment and radicalism and seek weapons of mass destruction," while democracies are more likely to oppose terrorism and "respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors." And the president greatly cheered Iranian pro-democracy activists by demanding that the mullahs end their support for terrorism and their nuclear weapons programs and political repression.

"The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions, and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons," Mr. Bush said. Addressing the Iranian people, he added that: "America respects you and we respect your country, We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran."

To his great credit, Mr. Bush did not shy away from making the point -- on several occasions -- that the terrorists who threaten the United States today are radical Islamists.

Mr. Bush was at his best in making the case for renewal of the Patriot Act and in rebutting the critics of his terrorist surveillance program to intercept the communications of suspected al Qaeda operatives to and from the United States: "If there are people inside our country who are talking about al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again."

On domestic issues, Mr. Bush called on Congress to make permanent the tax cuts passed during the first five years of his presidency. He warned of the spiraling costs of entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, and urged wider use of market mechanisms such as health savings accounts to expand access to health care. Mr. Bush's call for reduced oil imports is right on the mark. But as for his proposal for expanded clean-energy research, we would like to see evidence of its feasibility before we embrace it.

Mr. Bush's wistful comments about last year's unsuccessful effort to reform Social Security (and the sight of Democratic lawmakers applauding vigorously when the president mentioned the failure to reform Social Security) were troubling. Combined with the Democrats' refusal to applaud when the president called for victory in Iraq -- it served to illustrate once again why the Democratic Party is in serious decline.

One of the few discordant notes was the president's advocacy of a guest-worker program which will benefit illegal aliens -- a program that is fundamentally inconsistent with Mr. Bush's stated intention to reduce smuggling and crime at the border. But in general, the speech was a solid presentation of the president's vision and priorities for the nation.