Stream of Consciousness on the Speech

Random thoughts on the West Point speech. Yeah, it's late but I've been sick with the Swine cold.

Ok.. He described "a successful conclusion" as to ending the war. A bit subjective, since the far left might consider a successful conclusion as complete withdrawal. Way to pin it down, champ.

"Nineteen men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3000 people". He said the word murder! Fenstermaker must have been cringing, or applauding, knowing how that might prejudice the KSM jury pool.

Well, at least he knocked out a few more truther teeth.

Notice he says the troops will be leaving Iraq by 2011, the same time he envisions withdrawing from Afghanistan, all occurring before the 2012 reelection cycle. Surely a coincidence, or something convenient to help the Blue Dogs for 2010.

"Longstanding request for more troops". This got a lot of airplay today but he was clearly playing with words since the longstanding request was made in 2008. Obama promised that his kinder and gentler approach to the world would equal new NATO troop commitments as well. They should be along any time now.

"I owe you a mission that is clearly defined and worthy of your service". As in, Bush didn't do this. But don't call this partisan rancor!

He then defended the dithering charge by saying no troop plan called for deployments before 2010, which is typical for Afghanistan anyway since the fighting stops in winter. He gets a cookie on this one. Gotta be fair.

"After 18 months our troops will begin to come home". Win, lose, or draw--hey, we've got to nation build here at home AQ threat or not.

So what's the mission? Will it be one full year of kickass shock and awe fried terrorist tater tots or will they be dithering around watching their countdown clocks until the redeployment choppers arrive? O'Reilly thinks the timeline was for effect--let's hope so but is setting a goal to 'win' so hard? Of course, liberals don't believe in winning, and there is no black and white in this world except when discussing Bush-Cheney.

Did you know we just came through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression even though unemployment was just as bad in 1981?

And I am damn sick to death of Aff gan uh Stan and Pock e stahn. Why can't he say both correctly or both like an American? It's just as bad as nook u ler.

Applause finally came when he blurted out what must have been hard to choke out--praise and admiration for America's exceptionalism. The right wing blogpress didn't give him enough props for going there unless they are still in shock. Or maybe they've played the tape backward and it says something about Che and Chavez.

Bottom line, a comprehensive speech and deliberate tone but all over the map. Terrorists are bad, America is threatened, America must nation build at home Bush sucked, terrorists must be defeated or another 9/11 could happen Bush sucked but don't take this to mean we have any open ended commitments to stop them because we have health care to pass and more Stimulus to spread. So we've got 18 months to git r done because Rummy sucked and caused partisan rancor. And why are those warmongering bastards going to sleep on me out there?

the end