Reaganomics With A Human Face

A joint session of Congress is the most august forum available to a President. The setting alone -- the entire Government of the United States solemnly assembled in one vast chamber -- imparts a majesty and a grandeur to the occasion. The maiden address to Congress by a new President adds a further element of anticipation and drama. For George Bush, in particular, last Thursday's performance was the long awaited moment of self-definition, the chance to put to rest forever the stale gibes about his difficulties with "the vision thing."

Those certainly were the expectations. Bush and his advisers had portrayed...