NO COWBOY ENERGY
Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds think Bush looked tired and drained last night. David Frum thinks he looked calm. I'm with David. Last night's performance seemed calculated to counter the "Bush is a blustering cowboy" meme. He was firm and fatherly, not the smirking frat boy or the quick-on-the-trigger Jacksonian American of antiwar stereotypes. I was struck by his seemingly spontaneous "That's a good question" to the reporter who asked how we avoid letting Iraq become another Vietnam. Maybe the response was a calculated performance—who can tell?—but he seemed like he'd really thought about that question. Certainly Colin Powell has. [Posted 3/7.]