No telling for sure if these two photogenic bad boys traveled the same birth canal within minutes of one another.

You knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

"Look what you've done. I'm melting, melting. Ohhhhh, what a world, what a world."

Tonight I watched the annual State of the Union Message with all the concern of a parent witnessing his child step to the microphone in a city-wide spelling bee. You find yourself involuntarily mouthing the letters with him. But more than anything you just hope the kid doesn't embarass himself.

Whenever President Bush speaks, I cringe at the thought of the malaprop waiting to springboard from the high dive of his tongue and belly flop into the cold waters of perception some twenty feet below. Let's face it. Eloquence was never one of this man's great gifts. "George W. Bush" is the living answer to the Jeopardy question "What do you get when you cross Norm Crosby and Casey Stengel?"

But listening to his speech tonight, which had its moments of rhapsody, you gotta give the President credit. It would be easy to pull in the reigns and play it safe in his second term.

Instead he intends to privatize social security, reform the income tax, pass a marriage amendment and, for good measure, stay the course in bringing freedom to the people of Iraq. Not a bad day's work if you can get it.

I'm sure I left something out, but let's not quibble. He will make a lot of enemies in persuit of his agenda. They'll have to get a number and stand in line. Even with a Republican majority in both Houses, his battles will be fought on difficult terrain.

I must admit, though, as much as I take pride in spending my one little ol' red vote in a very, very blue state, this pales in comparison to the way I feel about the man who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I trust him.

I know he's a politician. But I trust him. Yes, he's made mistakes. The miscalculations of this war have been costly. But I believe he is an honest man. One of firm conviction. Why else would he have stayed on course in Iraq when it was clearly the least expediant thing he could do while seeking reelection?

Of course there are the blood-for-money protesters who believe this war is about lining the pockets of the President's corporate friends. Well, that's one perspective. Since no amount of logic or rhetoric are likely to change minds at this late date I'll offer none.

I will say this. I've waited most of my life to be able to say about someone in the Oval Office, "This is a man I trust." And whether history proves me right or wrong, in the midst of a political system which all too often throws us two candidates we have no affinity for and says "Go vote for the lesser of two evils," I'm glad I got a chance to experience this feeling of loyalty at least once.

I don't think the President hit a homer tonight. It was more like a double. But he rounded second without tripping on the bag. It was a good beginning. And it's still just the bottom of the fith.

So I'll watch this term from the stands, praying for him as the Lord brings him to mind. God speed, Mr. President. Steer clear of scandals. Let your actions speak louder than your words. A few years down the road I'll be the one in the Texas Rangers hat standing and cheering while you're rounding third, heading for home.

Yesterday President George W. Bush was sworn in for his second term in the Oval Office. It was a day a great rejoicing for the right side of the aisle and an occasion for black armbands and F-bomb protests for the left.

Nearly lost in all of the hub-bub was the inquiry of one ten year old citizen who happens to be a blood relation.

"My teacher says something special is happening in our country." offered our middle daughter Bonnie.

"Yes," I respond, sensing a good civics lesson coming on, "it's the Inauguration of President Bush. Tomorrow he'll place his hand on the Bible in front of the whole country and promise to do the very best job he can as leader of the United States."

"Egg-noguration?" Bonnie seemingly echoed.

I almost corrected her. And yet her innocent excursion into the realm of Stengleese seemed somehow appropriate. The country is so divided these days. Red states, blue states. Me states, you states. (Sorry, I just got done reading a certain children's author to our youngest.)

But there they were the next day. The Republicans decked out in their finest and beaming sunshine, despite the frozen weather, to the world. Whenever a Democrat's mug was flashed on the television screen they were invariably sour, or seething, or snoozing (c'mon Hillary. Grab that beauty rest in private!)

Maybe what we need to do is lose all this $40 million pomp and circumstance. Maybe we should just try to bring the country together in a much more low key fashion, offering hands of friendship that reach across both directions of that symbolic political aisle.

Maybe we hold an old fashioned barn dance where we can meet and shake hands, acknowledging our differences but celebrating our similarities. Maybe Bonnie was really onto something. Instead of dressing up fancy, we could all just put on our dress jeans and plaid country dresses while the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court administers the oath of office on a straw-laden floor as we all gather around a good old fashioned punch bowl filled with a sweetened, yellowy, milk-like substance.

Perhaps it takes a ten year old's mangling of the language to discover the silliness of unrelenting political fighting without ever stopping to applaud the process and honor our great country. Maybe the answer is really as simple as gathering together every four years for a simple, yet dignified . . . ahem . . . egg-noguration.