Speech had hollow ring for some.

Byline: SUSAN PALMER The Register-Guard

No dice, Mr. President.

That's the response of most of a half-dozen area residents asked about President Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night - he failed to make the case for attacking Iraq.

Even those who found something to like in the president's economic stimulus proposals or who agreed that Iraq may well pose a threat to the United States, said Bush fell short of identifying a smoking gun.

"He used scare tactics," said Greg Herbert, 51, a real estate broker. "My overall impression was he didn't make the case."

The president asked Americans to imagine chemical or biological weapons in the hands of hijackers and warned of "a day of horror like none we have ever known."

But the threat rang hollow for Herbert, an independent voter, who said he was more concerned about Oregon's struggling economy, which the president's promise of tax cuts did little to relieve.

"If we're going to cut taxes but spend more money to support this (military) action, how does that work?" said Herbert, one of six local people randomly selected for their thoughts on the address.

Overall, the president's speech lacked substance, he said.

But Drew Gottfried and Chad Southworth, 16-year-old juniors at North Eugene High School, said the president touched on themes that resonated with them.

His commitment to education reform and promise of money to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa caught Gottfried's attention.

"We really need to get on the AIDS problem. It won't fix itself and it will just get worse and worse," Gottfried said.

For Southworth, who said he is a conservative who leans toward being a Republican, the president's call to protect the environment and reduce reliance on foreign oil was a pleasant surprise.

The president proposed research funding to push for the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles, and suggested that children born today would be driving pollution-free cars as adults.

"We don't think of Republicans being big on environmental issues, so that stood out," Southworth said.

The president's tax cuts impressed both students as a way to kick-start the economy, but neither felt the president made the case for a military attack on Iraq.

"He didn't give us the smoking gun that we've all been looking for," Southworth said.

And while Gottfried, who said he leans toward being Democrat, thinks that the United States will have to go into Iraq eventually, he also thinks North Korea presents a more immediate nuclear threat.

For part-time middle school counselor Susan Cundiff, the president's speech was a slam-bang affair, his words sounding great right up until they collided with her memories of his past actions.

Bush spoke of spending discipline in Washington, yet recommended a $48 billion increase over last year's military budget, she said.

He hailed education reform during a time when budget woes across the country mean less and less money for schools.

And she didn't understand how his commitment to the war on terrorism allowed him to reject a spending bill that would have improved safety at sea ports and provided more money for first responders such as police and firefighters. "I just wanted to scream," she said.

But the key to listening to the State of the Union address is recognizing it for what it is, politics as usual, said retired salesman Wilson Crispin, 86.

"The State of the Union is almost never a speech about the state of the union," Crispin said. "There's too much PR and partisan politics and I never expect too much from it."

The president tried to paint a rosy picture during the domestic part of the speech, but the tax cut promises are more likely to create class warfare than make a dent in the economy, said Crispin, a Democrat.

And Bush belabored the well-known evils of Saddam Hussein without justifying an immediate need for war, he said.

But at least one Eugene resident was willing to cut the president some slack on his Iraq policies. "The president knows a hell of a lot more about what's going on with the enemy than we do," said retired lawyer Jane Gearhart, a Democrat. "So I have to defer to his judgment on those things," she said.

But even she felt the president needed international allies.

"The PR as much as anything would help, but also the assistance and cooperation would be valuable. I would assume, too, that if others join with us, maybe it'll help the enemy give up. He might get the idea he's alone," she said.