Most Depressing Moment from Last Night's Circus

On National Review’s blog, The Corner, conservative commentator John Derbyshire rather pithily sums up the sad reality of President Bush’s "guest worker" program proposal from last night’s State of the Union:

Worst Idea in the SOTU Speech.
Guest worker program. "Let's create a vast new category of second-class sub-citizens, preferably by allowing some neighboring country to export its race problem to us. Then, let's give the regulation and registration of these new millions over to a federal government agency that has proved hopelessly incapable of carrying out its current, much lesser, responsibilities." What a terrific idea.

Indeed. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful change of pace to have a President who actually took seriously his oath to defend the territorial integrity of the United States?

Last night’s speech was predictably empty of specifics and long on rhetoric. As usual, the home team applauded wildly and the opposing team grimaced and smirked. The post-game rebuttal from the opposing team's mascot was as soporific as usual. The State of the Union has essentially turned into a drawn out, over-choreographed high school pep rally. Is it too much to hope that a future president will wash his or her hands of this sad affair and return to the formerly venerable practice of simply sending Congress a letter? Was anything said last night worth the two hours of primetime network television it consumed?