My only comments about Bush's State of the Union address are that, first, I don't generally put a lot of stock in speeches, but, second, Bush is spending an awful lot of political capital on this democracy and freedom stuff, and he sure keeps talking about it a lot, so he just might mean what he says.

The pro-freedom forces have certainly won their share of victories lately. There's Bush's reelection and John Howard's reelection and Tony Blair's holding firm. There are the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq and Palestine. Abu Mazen is actually going to meet with Sharon at Sharm el Sheikh, and Mubarak and the King of Jordan and Condi Rice are going to be there and some kind of deal is going to get cut. There's the fact that dozens of Third World nations, from the world's brightest hope, India, to the Philippines to Thailand to Nigeria to Brazil to South Africa, are improving despite all their troubles. And Mexico. If you want to see a country that's gone from a hellhole to a functioning nation, take one look at the revolution south of the border that NAFTA has created.

The next challenge for us is the election in the Basque Country. Vote PP. If you can't stand to vote PP, vote PSOE. But go out and vote and we'll beat them.