Whoah, Nelly
How did Bush do tonight? Let’s check in with John ‘Buttmissile’ Hinderaker of Powerline, America’s most fervent George W. Bush fan not under involuntary psychiatric care (except for Mark Noonan):
“Sacka-frack liberals frim-sagga-frap…”
In the past, I’ve often said that President Bush has been more effective in televised speeches than he has been given credit for. Not tonight. I thought he came across as stiff, nervous, and anxious to get it over with. The importance of the issue seemed to overwhelm the President’s ability to communicate. I suspect that only a few listeners absorbed more than a general impression of what the new strategy is all about.
Which may be just as well. Words at this point mean little. Most Americans want us to win in Iraq. Most will be willing to give the new plan a chance to work, whether they understand what it is or not. All depends on the success of the new approach.
The problem, in my view, continues to be the difficulty of defining “success.” As the President warned, even if the new approach is “successful,” our television screens will be filled with scenes of violence. But that is precisely what, until now, has been defined as failure.
(From Oneiros Dreaming, in comments: “I didn’t watch the speech. So the solution is to define escalating violence as success? Awesome.”)
So let’s see what happens. The administration has bought itself a window of time, at least until the 2008 campaign heats up, to try to achieve discernible signs of progress. While the new strategies sound to me like good ideas–one wonders why some of them weren’t implemented some time ago–the more important factor, I think, is sheer persistence. The President will persist; let’s all hope and pray that he succeeds.
Wow. And I mean ‘wow.’ The speech bombed like hell.
Retardeaux adds: Yes, but Hugh ‘Boobmissiles’ Hewitt comes to a different conclusion:
“Noble and Necessary”
Posted by Hugh Hewitt | 9:24 PMPresident Bush was at his best tonight: serious, detailed, and above all, resolute. He spoke to many audiences.
To the public weary and grieved by the death of many of the finest Americans, the president spoke of the crucial issue: “For the safety of our people, America must succeed in Iraq.”
It isn’t, he explained repeatedly, just about giving Iraqis hope, but maintaining American security for all of the reasons he detailed.
Iraqis who desire peace heard the commitment, but they also heard its contingent nature: The Iraqi government has run out of time to dodge the tough choices.
Our enemies did not hear what they had hoped to, a declaration of surrender, whether phrased as a “timetable” or a simple “We quit.” They know that as long as Bush as in office, they will not win in Iraq.
Boobs, not Butts, for Bush?
Gavin adds: Bonus!
Retardation Ruling The Nation adds: Uh-oh:
Did We Just Declare War on Iran and Syria? [Michael Ledeen]
….Those “networks providing advanced weaponry and training” certainly are based in Iran and Syria. It sounds like he said we are going after terrorist training camps and the IED assembly facilities, doesn’t it?
Well?re: Iran and Syria [Cliff May]
Michael, that caught my eye, too. I hope, this time, we mean what Bush says.
Posted at 11:00 PMThanks, Cliff [Michael Ledeen]
Yes, we’ve heard lots of good speeches, but haven’t seen the actions that the words seemed to demand.But I liked a lot of the specifics of the speech. It seemed to me that David Frum’s advice was taken seriously (“details, details, details…”),
Gavin adds: Oh god, the pantomime. Michael Ledeen cannot for a moment believe that the White House rewrote a major speech at the last moment because David Frum posted some ‘suggestions’ on a blog. What an unbelievable bunch of whooping liars.
it sounded like our soldiers will get Rules of Engagement that haven’t been neutered, that are not PC, but ROEs that are appropriate to winning a war rather than avoiding casualties. Maybe…
Posted at 11:10 PM
‘Such a good speech, expand the quagmire theatre of operations, exterminate the brutes; wipe them out, all of them, down to the last insect in Mesopotamia; faster, please!’
Awww, he’s just cryin’ because Bush made a pantomime at taking responsibility for the most monumental foreign policy and military fuckup in the history of Western Civilization. Because if he’s responsible, so. are. they.
Et tu, Buttus?
Most Americans want us to win in Iraq. Most will be willing to give the new plan a chance to work, whether they understand what it is or not.
So the big news here: John AssRoquette® is Gary Ruppert.
There’s an update:
“UPDATE: Based on comments so far, our readers are solidly behind the President and viewed the speech positively.”
There’s a shock.
They must have eaten the shrooms, eebee.
Wingnuts invent their own logical fallacies. The Appeal to the Minority is an odd choice.
I didn’t watch the speech. So the solution is to define escalating violence as success? Awesome.
Did somebody say shrooms?
Cartoons. They’re what’s for dinner.
The Hinderaker automated droopy-eyed bobblehead is a touch too much for this Bush-hating SadlyNo subscriber.
H. Twotits wishes the public shared his Bush-worship; alas it voted in the opposite direction recently, or hasn’t he noticed?
The administration has bought itself a window of time, at least until the 2008 campaign heats up
And thats the whole reason for this isnt it? Give the Chimp SOME fig leaf to hide behind in future years, so the Iraq problem will be the next poor bastard’s problem to fix.
But the new strategy is not driven by political interests. That would be wagging the dog. Which is bad.
These people are something else.
Bush has to be one of the worst public speakers in modern history.
Now, I’m not talking about substance, or stance, of phraseology. I mean he’s the most god-awful boring, dis-attached, “sweet Jesus kill me now” monotonous driveller I’ve seen outside of High School group presentations. Or worse, group readings of Shakespeare.
In 2003, well before my polito-dar was activated, I was tasked to watch the SOTU speech for class. I was actually excited; cause zowies Batman, the President’s State of the Union is, like, his orgy of self-interest!
I figured it would last 20 minutes, 30 tops. I had to turn it off at minute 50 out of sheer self-preservation instinct.
His eyes might be on the teleprompter, but his soul is squarely focused on Frogger.
Oh. Wow. Is Hindy having a stroke or something? That’s eerie.
Ah, the horror, the shame!!@!
The fact is we undermine the Deciderer at some other nation’s peril.
the President’s State of the Union is, like, his orgy of self-interest!
Somehow that doesn’t sound like an orgy to me.
Watching that Hinderaker GIF reminded me of good old Herbert Lom as Peter Sellers’s increasingly twitchy, maniacal boss back in the old “Pink Panther” movies.
“…stiff, nervous, and anxious to get it over with”
Did he really say that?
“…stiff, nervous, and anxious to get it over with�
that discribes Hindraker’s wife as well
zing! thank you, I’ll be here all week! Remeber, tip veal and try the waitress. G’night everybody!
“It isn’t, he explained repeatedly, just about giving Iraqis hope …”
No. It’s also all about killing lots of them.
“So let’s see what happens. The administration has bought itself a window of time ..”
At Home Depot, for $7 billion. To replace the 50 windows of time it has already stumbled through and smashed to tiny pieces for the low price of a half a trillion dollars.
“Iraqis who desire peace heard the commitment …”
To endless war.
I’m pretty sure that Mark Noonan is under psychiatric care. How else can you explain Blogs for Bush?
“You’re not an idiot. You’re not a goddamn looney now, boy. You’re a blogger!”
“Words at this point mean little.”
No shit.
“Most Americans want us to win in Iraq.”
No. They want us the fuck out of there.
“The problem, in my view, continues to be the difficulty of defining “success.â€?’
Putting the word in finger quotes doesn’t give us much confidence.
“Our enemies did not hear what they had hoped to …”
They were hoping for Whitney Houston in Punjabi and kept angrily clicking the remote.
“The President will persist …”
Like athlete’s foot and toenail fungus.
To the puntits war is a video game and a bag o’ cheetos
“Did We Just Declare War on Iran and Syria? ”
Wow. The President can declare war in prepared speeches, eh?
“it sounded like our soldiers will get Rules of Engagement that haven’t been neutered, that are not PC, but ROEs that are appropriate to winning a war rather than avoiding casualties. Maybe…”
I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean. Aren’t ROE’s, be definition, a “neutering” of your forces?
it sounded like our soldiers will get Rules of Engagement that haven’t been neutered, that are not PC, but ROEs that are appropriate to winning a war rather than avoiding casualties. Maybe…
Yeah, ’cause the problem in Iraq is not that too many people are being killed, but that *not enough* people are being killed.
My God, what sad misanthropes these middle-aged castrati are.
We need to bomb Israel and blame Iran or Syria.
Beauty.
Atlanta police, as hospitable and comforting to foreign visitors as the American military in Iraq.
Source: Daily Mail – This Old Brit reports
Conversely, we could nuke Dallas and blame Iran and NK. That’d get use some international support.
I didn’t watch the speech, but instead watched “The Devil Wears Prada,” or did I……?
I tried to read the transcript, but my mind couldn’t take it, and unilaterally repealed Godwin’s Law. I’m sorry, we’re not supposed to make such analogies, but this sounded like it was written by Josef Goebbels in December 1944. When the inner circle all saw the coming disaster but kept trying to convince the people that victory could still be found.
I really, truly hope that the man at the center of the innermost inner circle is not as out of touch with reality as that old bastard down in his bunker.
Gosh, I hope we attack both Iran and Syria. This is going to be awesome! I mean Iraq has worked out so well as it is. Imagine the possibilities of expanding the theather of war ten fold. Fantastic! Shia and Sunni putting their differences aside and comming together in an act of eternal love. Michael Leeden – you Sir are brilliant. Oh’ and more possibly, a war criminal.
“Shia and Sunni putting their differences aside ”
Never happen. In fact, the nutbar Shi’ites are the ones who are making everything happen, they would love to fight the Sunni for ALI ALI ALI!!!!!!!
You are not very smart, are you??
That tic is getting into Herbert Lom territory.
Thanks for the looped video clip, Gavin; it is going to haunt my dreams tonight.
How the hell does Hinderaker get his hairpiece to stay in place while he tosses his head around? It stays so still on his head, not a hair out of place, it must be made out of camel bristles and held firmly in place with carpenter’s glue. Or else it’s simply painted on.
I think the real plan is to heat the globe up so that the Middle East averages 160 degrees in the summer and 100 degrees in the winter. When the place is no longer habitable, we declare victory.
Bush is an evil genius.
I suspected from the beginning of this Iraqi thing that the reasons they were giving, W.M.D. nation building, ect ect could not be the real ones. The only theory I could come up with was, “Get them all in one place. Draw them in from all over the world. Set up a killing field.” It seemed to work for a while. There’s no doubt more extremists were killed in the first few months than could be counted. Have to admit I thought it might be a pretty good idea. Get them to a place where the only Americans they could shoot at were armed and trained to shoot back. Remember the military personel volanteered and are paid to go in harm’s way. Did anyone anticipate the horrendas “colateral damage” that befell the people of Iraq? I sure as hell didn’t. Even if we pull out of there tomorrow, we’ve put the world on notice we can be just as fucking crazy as they can
As we have learned to say in New Orleans, “Enough!”
Let the boy king expand the war. No worries. After all, in two years we get to vote for a new president and we can choose the man who will, by his own words, sit down those Shia and Sunnis and tell ’em to stop the bullshit. It’s a brilliant strategy really, the work of a real spaghetti puller.
What a glorious world this will be…
We need to bomb Israel and blame Iran or Syria.
Congratulations, annie, you just made the “Loose Change” people look like calm, reasonable, logical individuals.
Or, we could, you know, prove we’re not really mad by releasing Mecha-Godzilla. That makes about as much sense.
” The importance of the issue seemed to overwhelm the President’s ability to communicate. ”
That’s some mighty painful honesty about Bushie-boy there from such a source as The Corndog Slurper. Just how bad did Bushie have to do to merit that from him?–because apparently Hindy’s never seen Bushie be overwhelmed before. (Hindy has a shitty optometrist.)
” Did anyone anticipate the horrendas “colateral damageâ€? that befell the people of Iraq? ”
As a matter of fact, yes, some people did foresee the Iraqi clustershag. They’re called “The Left” (excepting Hitchens and the DLC).
AAAARRRRGHHH!!! RAAAAWR!!!
“…stiff, nervous, and anxious to get it over with�
Quote from somewhere from within the brain of Commander O’ Chief:
“Damn, I have to talk to all these people I represent again. They’re always judging me and calling me incompetent and stupid and stuff. And all because I invaded the wrong country and made the world far less safe. Glorious, loving Jesus on high, can’t these whiners see how complicated and hard this job is? Boy, those lights are bright. Sigh.”
Hey Iran, we’re in your consulate, arresting your doodz. 🙂
I love you guys.
How the hell does Hinderaker get his hairpiece to stay in place while he tosses his head around? It stays so still on his head, not a hair out of place, it must be made out of camel bristles and held firmly in place with carpenter’s glue. Or else it’s simply painted on.
Herr Doktor, this might be the answer…
Goddanged preview button.
http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/~pprice/images/barbie.jpeg
This was a well orchestrated and implemented speech by a madman informing the world of his intent to blow us all to smithereens in the name of saving his legacy while simultaneously declaring an unauthorized war on Iran and Syria and informing the Kool-Aid drinkers of America (KADA) that YES!!!!! they can indeed count on him to continue to spread hate and discontent around the globe in the name of Christianity and other REAL Amerikun values (shopping and going to Nascar events while sucking down Jim Beam and eating corndog/freedom fry combos supersized of course)!
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED YA’LL!
Coming awfully late to this one (damn y’all have been busy the last 24 hours — Jack Bauer is a piker, seriously) but FWIW . . .
Didn’t watch the speech (no TV, alas) and couldn’t make myself initiate audio on Heinieraker — but it does occur to me that you can decipher his looping words just by watching those liver-lips: “I’m an ass, an ass . . . I don’t say shit. I’m an ass, an ass . . . I don’t say shit.” Try it.
It looked to me like somewhere grabbed him by the ears before his speech and told him, “Not a smile, a smirk, no wiggling, gesturing, no lip pursing!!! Just stand there and say these sentences quietly!”
So if he looked ‘weak’ perhaps it was just his lack of lip pursing, wiggling and gesturing.
Maybe that put some nuns in charge of his demeanor.
but it does occur to me that you can decipher his looping words just by watching those liver-lips
I tried that, to no avail. His mouth opens and closes like a Thunderbirds puppet but his lips don’t otherwise move very much. I’m calling tardive dyskinesia.
[…] The first of would-be Pee-wee Hermans is Michael Ledeen, who is closely followed by Cliff May. […]
Now that the surge has radically decreased both coalition and civilian casualities in Iraq, Maliki has stated that the civil war is over, killing of American troops by the Quds force is incontrovertible, and a Syrian nuclear site has been bombed out of existence, I’m sure all of you will apologize for your over-the-top comments, right? Right? ‘Cause it’s not like you’d be so blinded by hatred that you couldn’t rationally re-evaluate your oh-so-levelheaded opinions and admit that maybe, just maybe, you didn’t know everything you thought you did nine months ago. Y’know – maybe I could come up with something catchy to describe that mindset. Something short and pithy – what do you guys think of “Sadly, no!” ?
MakeMineRed