My impressions of the President’s speech:
His speech writers are much better at writing a speech than he is at delivering one.
I vacillate on his giving it before a military audience: On the one hand, it smacks of using them as props, on the other, they’re the people who are actually being killed and wounded. I would rather he gave the speech direct into the camera and then privately schmoozed the soldiers, but team Bush may have decided he does much better in front of a live audience.
As long as it was a live audience, I’m glad they were under orders not to applaud because I hate how much longer that makes a political speech and how that destroys the pacing.
I was disturbed by that proto-smile on his face during a lot of the speech – but I guess that was his thinking to himself “How many times do I have to explain this to you.”
I found the irony rich: the smirky Bushitler having a clear grasp of a winning strategy, both for the war on terror as well as the battle for Iraq, while his oh so much smarter opponents keep mewling about how Saddam didn’t have anything to do with 9/11 and whose strategy seems to be if we ignore it, it will just go away striking.
Since I was already persuaded by the arguments advanced, I can’t tell if anyone was persuaded for or against by the speech. I do think the strategy and rationale was clearly layed out and I’m dismayed by how many people don’t seem to get it.
I did find the end of the speech effective. Yes, choked by emotion can all too easily be overdone, but I do think it was genuine, and came across as such. He could barely get out the “May God Bless You All”.
On a side note, who would you rather write about politics, this guy or this guy? I don’t know what Mr. Maguire does for a living, but I much prefer to reading his slyly cogent take on matters than Mr. Millbank’s snarky superficiality.
