Reaction to Bush Speech
The reactions to the speech by President Bush, today, are more than a person can get thru in a lifetime, but here is a small sampling:
Michelle Malkin:
My question: What took him so long? He could have made this speech while Sheehan was gaining traction outside his Crawford, Tx. ranch this summer with her "Bush lied!" brigades. He could have made this speech while the anti-war movement and the media were busy politicizing the "2000 dead" milestone in the most macabre and dishonest way. He could have made this speech as Harry Reid was jumping up and down like Rumpelstiltskin behind the Senate chamber's locked doors.
But he didn't.
Better late than never. I hope this is a sign of renewed intestinal fortitude. The GOP needs it.
She links to a relevant piece by Norman Podhoretz, in Commentary, and an essay by Tom Bevan, of Real Clear Politics, taking on the articles critics.
Lorie Byrd, of PoliPundit:
I think that the timing of this is George W. Bush through and through. He rarely answers his critics when they are screaming. He waits until they work themselves into frothing at the mouth lunatics and lets them make more and more outlandish statements that they later have to try to distance themselves from. Then, when there is an opening in the news cycle, he addresses them on his terms. In this case, in a Veteran’s Day speech.
Read the rest in Why Now?
Brian, of Iowa Voice, expresses some thoughts about the Democrats:
You've got people like Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and the rest of the sorry bunch, who all voted to go to war, and then when it was politically acceptable (to them) backed away from it. It's funny. They call the President a "fool" or "stupid", but what does that say about those Democrats who fell for it and went along with him?
He says more, and links to other opinions on todays events as well in a piece called Bush Comes Out Swinging.
Don Surber calls the Speech Bush's Gettysburg Address:
From a small town in Pennsylvania, the president came to finally answer critics of an increasingly unpopular war, a war that Democrats hoped would sweep them into office in the next election.
But enough about Lincoln at Gettysburg 142 Novembers ago; let me analyze George Walker Bush's speech today...
Ken, of Obligatory Anecdotes has a great essay:
After 911 our entire way of thinking had to change. We could not just go after the perpetrators of the attacks on that day like we would common criminals. They had declared war on us and we had to meet them head on. The war on terror is an unconventional war and must be fought as unconventional as the enemy does. Not to do so would be like the British in the Revolutionary war standing in strait lines to fight the colonial army. They were trying to fight the conventional way at the time and we were fighting a gorilla war. It was the British’s inability to adapt to the unconventional form of warfare that resulted in their defeat. We too must adapt to the gorilla warfare that militant Islam is waging or we too will find ourselves on the losing end.
Read the whole thing in Democrats get Bush Whacked!
How is the Left reacting?
Predictably...
Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid:
"On this Veterans Day, the President had the opportunity to honor our troops, both those who have served and those who are currently serving, by laying out a clear strategy for success in the war in Iraq. Instead, the President resorted to his old playbook of discredited rhetoric about the war on terror and political attacks as his own political fortunes and credibility diminish.
Statement of Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Bush's speech on Iraq and the war on terror, and salvos by his staff, as posted at The Raw Story.
David Kusnet, at New Republic Online, lets it all hang out in the opening paragraph:
For speechwriters drafting a presidential address for a patriotic holiday such as Independence Day, Memorial Day, or Veterans Day, there are three rules: Don't be wordy; don't be wonky; and, most important, don't be partisan. In his Veterans Day remarks today at the Tobyhanna Army Depot near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, President Bush and his staff broke all three rules, producing a strident speech that went on for almost 50 minutes, included a lengthy comparison of "Islamic radicalism" and "the ideology of communism," and concluded by attacking "some Democrats," while taking an implicit shot at "my opponent during the last election." It may have been the worst speech of his presidency....
Register for free, and read the whole essay in Attack Mode.
Over at Daily Kos, a Vietnam Vet named Anglico whispers sweet nothings to the Comander-in-Chief:
Your piss-poor speech today - of all days - proves that you don't know jack shit about the military and the needs of men and women in uniform. You took a sacred occasion and turned it into a political soapbox to cover your chickenhawk ass. Fucking coward...
If you were an honorable man, you'd resign from office and apologize to the world for your lies and incompetence. But we know you are not an honorable man.
That's why we're going to take back Congress. And then we are going to impeach your lying ass. That's right, asshole, you are going down.
Read the whole screed, and 285 comments, here: Fuck You, Mr. President.
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