State of Union to highlight success

By RUPERT CORNWELL in Washington


President George W. Bush was today to deliver a State of the Union address, depicting himself as a statesman above the fray and setting out the main themes of his 2004 re-election campaign.

The hour-long speech will seek to present the President as a proven, unifying leader, in contrast to the eight Democrats jostling to replace him, fresh from their fierce and divisive battle at the Iowa caucuses.

As White House officials privately admit, the date was carefully picked, giving the President an uninterrupted hour of network prime time to get his own case across, stressing a positive agenda - in contrast with those of the Democratic candidates.

Bush will not dwell on the failure to find Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, the prime justification for last March's invasion. To do so would only be a reminder that assertions in the 2003 State of the Union address, that Saddam posed a "serious and mounting threat" to the US, and the claim he had been trying to buy uranium from Africa to build a nuclear weapon, have been totally disproved.

Instead, the President will point to the capture of Saddam Hussein, and to Libya's decision to give up its own WMD programme as proof that invading was correct, and worth the 500 US soldiers' lives that have so far been lost.

Bush will also claim major successes in the war against terror - which Republicans regard as his trump card for re-election.

However, the bulk of the address will deal with economic themes. He is expected to make specific proposals on health care and for a part-privatisation of social security, an issue that figured large in his 2000 campaign. Workers would be allowed to invest in the stock market some of the Social Security taxes they currently pay.

On health care, the speech will also contain proposals to broaden coverage and reduce costs - now an unprecedented 15 per cent of GDP. But with the federal deficit at a record US$500 billion, or 5 per cent of GDP, there is scant money to fund major new initiatives.

Publicly, the White House insists Bush will not be holding any gala rally formally launching his re-election campaign. However, that campaign has long since started in key states, including launching an animal research laboratory in Iowa and financial help for orange-growers in Florida, two states decided by a whisker in 2000.

Hours after delivering the State of the Union, the President leaves Washington for campaign-style visits to Ohio, New Mexico and Arizona, three states up for grabs in the general election.

- INDEPENDENT