On the way into work today, I saw a news snippet about Monday's State of the Union speech. According to the White House, the central theme of the speech will be that, in making policy (for example, on wiretapping or data mining), "the government should make clear that it places its full trust in the people."

My highly placed, confidential sources in the Oval Office have confirmed that this is indeed the speech. In the draft that they sent me, over the transom and all that, in fact, this very sentence is used in the first minute. It is followed by this statement:

"Of course, as the great Ronald Reagan said, we must trust, but verify."