We the People Enjoy the Irony (at least this Person does)

President Bush concluded his final State of the Union address by contrasting the Articles of Confederation opening reference to "We the undersigned delegates of the States" with the Constitution's "We the People". Bush used the change as a call to arms to do the People's business--always a useful reminder whenever there is a lame duck president and the opposition party controls Congress. However, as is so often the case, Bush seems to have missed the point. "We the People" had everything to do with undermining the authority of the existing state-dominated regime by creating direct appeals to the sovereign people and, in so doing, undercutting the authority of state legislatures. Ratification was to be done by state conventions, not by state legislatures. I have no problem with the occasional rhetorical flourish but there is a certain irony in a president who campaigned for the White House as a strong federalism (i.e. states-rights) conservative invoking, in what is likely the last major speech of his presidency, one of the original mechanisms used to overcome the authority of states.