I'm just getting to watching yesterday's State of the Union speech and I must confess that one moment struck me as ... odd.

It is said that prior to the attacks of September the 11th, our government failed to connect the dots of the conspiracy. We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to Al Qaida operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late.

So to prevent another attack -- based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute -- I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected Al Qaida operatives and affiliates to and from America.

Previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have and federal courts have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed.

The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with Al Qaida, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again.

Democrats like to talk out of both sides of their mouth on this issue. While they accuse President Bush of an impeachable offense and various other illegalities, they also don't want him to stop doing it. (See National Review's Rich Lowry for a more extensive take on the issue.)

Democrats' biggest problem in the last election cycle was the perception that they were weaker on national security in an age of terrorism than Republicans -- a perception that continues to this day. When polled about the NSA surveillance program -- even when that polling describes the program inaccurately as a "domestic spying" program -- a majority of Americans support the program. When it's described accurately, the number grows even higher.

So, seeing this as a political problem, why does Sen. Hillary Clinton give a smirk and Democrats sit on their hands? Congratulations, you've once again reinforced the perception that most Americans have of you.

Bad move, but I'm sure your Republican opponents will really appreciate it in November.