He's Still Breathing

I'm no fan of Bush. However, I think he did himself some good tonight.

I listened to his press event on the radio so I'm not sure how it came across to the viewing public. The first 10 minutes were definitely horrible. Halting, tentative speech -- I could hardly believe he was reading from a prepared text. But at some point before he started taking questions he seemed to find a little rhythm. (I'm being generous here. Bush finding his rhythm is still a pretty bad speech, objectively speaking. But for him, he started doing OK at that point.)

His answers to questions were maddeningly unsubstantive and un-newsworthy. He really didn't have anything new to say. But, he did reiterate (and reiterate, and reiterate...) a message that has been woefully absent from the administration. Namely his commitment to "stay the course" in Iraq. To the extent this is true it is a good thing. Americans and the world need to hear the important message that we will see the job through.

The problem, of course, is that George Bush always sounds good (in terms of what he says not, obviously, how he says it). The question is whether his actions will live up to his words. On this, I'm not confident.

To the average viewer, however, Bush's relentless hammering of his rehearsed talking points was probably enough to staunch the political bleeding of the last few weeks. This speech, unlike his SOTU, should be good for a few points in the right direction.

I also think some of the rabid partisans commenting at Atrios and Political Animal are somewhat delusional in thinking that Bush imploded during his speech. There were definitely some big-time bobbles but most people know Bush is a horrible orator. And, unfortunately, I'm not even sure people are disturbed by his obvious inability to grasp even the simplest facts or details. It seems to me that he did himself some good precisely because he didn't implode. The expectations for this guy are so low that he really wins simply by showing up and not forgetting to breathe.