Okay, I get it now.....

[ewagner]

Read somewhere that Karen Hughes suggested (and probably wrote) last night's speech.

Okay. Now I get it!

That speech had nothing to do with foreign policy, or for that matter, bringing 'mocracy to Iraq. It was all about the 2004 election !

Think of these elements for the standard stump speech.

The UN won't help so they are irrelevant!

Those who criticize are our policies are from the decadent past.

We attacked Iraq to keep our streets safe.

(alternately) Iraq is the battleground from 9/11

The best defense is a good offense. That's what this speech was all about. Definining the battleground issues for the campaign. He can't talk about the economy, so fear and revenge are the only things left.

Congressman King on Larry King's show last night was asked if we weren't "mortgaging our grandchildren's future? with the deficit spending of $87 B?" His reply was "at least our grand children will be alive." That's the tone of the new campaign. That's the battle that the bushies will fight.

What do you think?

[Brucey]

1. Some will buy it

no pun intended, but many will see the hypocrisy, arrogance, and destruction. Shrubhead and company will look like idiots to lots of people. They know he went into Iraq on his own and now is in trouble. There is no way he can re-spin that.

[rfranklin]

2. You're right, that's their last best hope for hanging on...

keep the threat of 9/11 type events up front. They cannot guarantee anything, but they can threaten us with that spectre. And what is this crap about our children being alive? The twin towers took out less than 3,000 people. Using their logic about casualties in Iraq, that's less than the amount of kids killed by handguns each year so it's no big deal. (Ten young people age 19 and under die from gun violence each day- that's over 3,600 youths and children each year--Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000.)

What their strategy requires is that we have regular terrorist attacks to keep the public frightened. So there is no advantage for the Republicans to prevent the attacks. So why should we vote for them?

[asjr]

3. 2004

It was a pretty poor re-election speech if that is what it was. I am convinced now more than ever that we have a real puppet in the WH. He looked and sounded like a robot whose batteries were running low. Asking the nation to "sacrifice" was just about the dumbest thing in his speech. We don't have anything else to sacrifice. He has taken it all away from us. The hunger for power and greed got us into this mess by the Repubs and now they want us to pay for it. If impeachment proceedings are not undertaken now we may not make it until 2004.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. The plebeians are asked to sacrifice

while the patricians get big, fat, permanent tax cuts