Bush Speaks
After hearing Bush compared to Reagan, Churchill, and Roosevelt all week, I was ready for him to look embarrassingly small by comparison. He did better than that. The speech was competent and at times moving. It just wasn't inspiring, at least not to me. But it wasn't addressed to me, and it seems to have done quite well, at least among the punditocracy. John Kerry made Bush look even better with his petulant and rambling midnight address. What was he thinking? Doesn't Kerry have advisers to tell him not to give poorly prepared speeches that project desperation?
The most striking thing about Bush's speech was that he not only made audience members cry but teared up himself, here: "And I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved. I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers--to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride?"