Who is winning this war? Private contractors and Cheney's old company. We the people have invested almost $700 billion for war since 9/11. Do you feel a trillion dollars safer? I think our actions have fueled the hatred in the world, not abated it. And can we imagine what a trillion dollars invested in this country's infrastructure, education and health care would have accomplished? Can we urge and support our legislators in just saying no? -- J. G. Sugg, Spokane

I watched most of the State of the Union last night. Though nothing the president said shocked or inspired me, I did find it interesting to watch Nancy Pelosi behind him and observe which members of his audience stood/applauded when. I wish I had caught the whole thing, but switching stations I saw the tail end of Sen. Obama's interview after the speech, in which he mentioned the constraint of who he was sitting next to. It must be a very narrow line to walk for him and for Sen. Clinton, whose post-speech interview I unfortunately missed completely.

One thing the left side of the aisle looked iffy on was war spending. They've got to maintain their image of "supporting the troops," but they made no bones about their continued opposition to the president's policy on Iraq.

What were your impressions of the speech (and the audience) last night?

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