Bush's forthcoming address not really a first

CINCINNATI – Much is being made of the fact that President Bush will be addressing the nation from the White House on Monday evening about immigration, a domestic policy issue. An article in today's New York Times even notes:

The White House said Mr. Bush would deliver a televised address on Monday evening — his first on domestic policy from the Oval Office — to build public pressure on Congress at a crucial moment.

And while The New York Times is technically correct, all of the political pundits chatting about how Mr. Bush has never taken network time for a non-emergency domestic matter are incorrect.

Less than seven months after taking office, a much younger-looking Mr. Bush used the airwaves to tackle stem cell research, in his first – and only – major address before 9/11 changed the direction of his presidency – and the country – dramatically. As CNN reported back then:

In a much-anticipated decision on what he called a "complex and difficult issue," President Bush on Thursday night said he would allow federal funding of research using existing stem cell lines.

...

"I have made this decision with great care, and I pray that it is the right one," Bush said in a nationally televised address from his ranch [in Crawford, Texas], where he is on a monthlong working vacation.

So is it significant that Mr. Bush is using the Oval Office to give a televised address on domestic policy? Absolutely. Does this show how important immigration has become as a political issue? Certainly. But is this really the milestone first the media is making it out to be? Not quite.

Also, if the Monday speech touches on protecting the Mexican border and whether or not people are deported back to the United States' southern neighbor, it does seem worth asking: is this really a matter of “domestic” policy? At last check, Mexico was not part of the United States.