Watch it. Talk about it.
ADDED: The content was good, but Bush was stiff and distant. He really just isn't very good at reading a speech. He doesn't reach out to us and convince us, even when he has excellent material. Senator Jack Reed, for the Democrats, was entirely numb, and that annoying electronic buzz in the background pushed it over the line to utterly unwatchable.
१३ सप्टेंबर, २००७
याची सदस्यत्व घ्या:
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा (Atom)
पोस्ट्स
७२ टिप्पण्या:
What's the point?
Shorter version-
I'm done, wait until you see the world in two years after I'm through with it- you'd be wishing you had George W Bush again.
What going on with Clifford Terry Kresge, these days?
Question: What have the Althouse women got against sleeves?
http://www.pennlive.com/golf/photogallery/gallery.ssf?/cgi-bin/slide-show.cgi/penn/slide_show.ata?index=20&g_id=339
Impeach.
I second Doyle: we should condemn the Congressional Democratic Party for every day they refuse to initiate impeachment procedings. If they really believe the stuff they say about this President, impeachment is the only option. If they don't impeach, that leads us to conclusions aobut their own motivations and propriety. Impeach, or shut up.
I thought it was okay. I don't know about "stiff and distant" - he managed to get through the whole thing without resorting to that unbelievably irritating half-smirk that his face seems to default to when given a pause in the speech. He looked like he was serious - he looked like a man with the weight of his position on his shoulders. And I think that when the narrative the other side wants to spin is that he lives in a bubble, that he doesn't know what's going on, showing the pressure of the office is the best possible way to present himself and increase his chances of reaching people.
Who are the 36 other nations fighting with us in Iraq and how many soldiers total to these 36 nations have in Iraq?
I don't know all that much about Senator Reed but I thought he did a good job, certainly with much more feeling than Bush. That's consistent with my predisposition on the matter, but Althouse's take on Reed is similarly consistent with her predisposition.
Enduring relationship?
Spell it out. We will be there for decades. Fine if we must but start telling people that is what we are in for.
Of course for independent Althouse the democrat was awful-what a suprise.
Not to change the subject but has anyone else caught the new Mormon Men Missionary Calendar?
Wow, I am totally converting. I can definitely do the missionary position not sure about the actualy missionary work though.
arage mahal said: "Shorter version-
I'm done, wait until you see the world in two years after I'm through with it- you'd be wishing you had George W Bush again."
I hope you're kidding.
"Wishing" we had this idiot...AGAIN??
4 years...and this is the BEST we can get???
Almost 4,000 dead, 29,000 wounded?????
Pitiful.
The comments here are, for the most part, as predictable as the speech. Come on, people, I know you don't have speech writers, but come up with some new material!
Althouse says: He really just isn't very good at reading a speech.
Actually: He really just isn't very good at reading.
In fact: He really just isn't very good at all.
Palladian said..."...come up with some new material!"
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
MOST of the people here voted for this idiot...twice.
JFK and Ronald Reagan are generally considered the best "communicators" among our presidents....but Grover Cleveland (who was the only one who served two non consecutive terms) was also know as a great wit...In fact his reelection slogan was a true gem:"Ma, Ma where's my Pa...He went to the White House..HA,HA,HA" ...as sure as the turning of the earth there is nothing new in political speech in this troubled old world...back to our regularly scheduled invective.
"he managed to get through the whole thing without resorting to that unbelievably irritating half-smirk"
The soft bigotry of low expectations.
I mean, LOS must have said everything he could possibly ever say, given his limited vocabulary, in his first 2 days of comments at this blog. Everything afterwards is just like the world's most boring variations on the world's most trite themes. Kind of like Mozart. As the evening progresses and he drinks more, his comments will lapse into inscrutability and vulgarity and will, by the 238th or so comment, probably include a taunting reference to two other commenters having gay sex.
And titus(insert number here) is going to shock, I say SHOCK us by lapsing into some monologue about SHOCKING GAY SEX that has all the veracity of a story in a 1994 issue of HX magazine, made even better by the exclusion of capital letters (which in the secret code of digital gayness means he's a bottom).
Doyle will inject some bitterness into the sorry conversation, like a splash of expired Angostura in an Old-Fashioned cocktail made with watered down Cutty Sark.
AJD will make some angry, resentful comment most likely referring to Althouse with a diminutive, using one of his 391 Blogger screen names, thinking he's being all sneaky and clever.
garage mahal will make a comment that's a rehash of all the other bitter leftyish commenter's comments that will completely fail to make any impression on anyone.
At some point Fen and/or Sloanasaurus will come in and fruitlessly and inexplicably begin to argue with LOS.
Maxine will comment about someone's shoes and perhaps creepily link to a scan of one of Althouse's son's 3rd grade class picture.
Torpor will ensue.
Palladian,
Why not provide insightful information we HAVEN''T heard from your right wing buddies over the past 5 years.
C'mon...what did we hear from Petraeus or Bush that we haven't heard before???
Talk is cheap., asshole.
"Bring it on"...
I feel left out.
me also.
maybe it's because I like
mozart
Wasn't he that big old fat first baseman for the Mets.
Trooper, Palladian must not like old cavalry soldiers :)
They continue to be the regiment...wearing dirty blue and homespun...they don't remember their names...but they were there with Thursday and O'Rourke and all the rest..it's up to us to keep the memory alive.
trooper & sgt.,
How, at this point in your lives, could both of you not be used to being "left out??"
I'm torn between amusement at Palladian's eerily accurate summary and resentment that I didn't get my own personal cliche.
The facts on the ground change, but the domestic dialogue doesn't.
One party wants to win, but is increasingly impatient; the other party wants to lose and blame the incumbent president for losing, but is impatient with their impotence in forcing the issue without fingerprints; our enemies laugh at our weak will and lack of commitment, and plan accordingly.
For a preview of Democrat foreign policy vis a vis their preference for surrendering the Middle East to Militant Islamic Fascism, we need look no further than Israeli President Shimon Peres:
"In his first comments on the subject since Tuesday morning's Kassam rocket attack which left 69 soldiers wounded, President Shimon Peres voiced wonder at the Palestinian terror groups' decision to continue with such tactics.
"It makes no sense why they would continue to shoot at us despite the fact that we disengaged from the Gaza Strip," Peres said during a Rosh Hashana toast for foreign diplomats.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411386732&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Too many readers of this blog undoubtedly wonder why Peres is complaining. They will wonder why Americans complain when al Qaeda and others continue their attacks even if we leave Iraq with defeat and dishonor - and then blame Bush.
My descriptions were of the predictable commenters.
Countering the BULLSHIT:
http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=752
I just want to be in with the in crowd baby...in with the in crowd
un huh...I guess I don't have the gift of sparkling repartee...I will have to stay in the minors...but Palladian..put me in coach I'm ready to play
Thanks coach...my left hand thanks you for the compliment
"but Palladian..put me in coach I'm ready to play"
You need to become more predictable, Troop. And a little anger and self-satisfied smugness doesn't hurt either.
LOS, you may have noticed (well, perhaps that assumption is a tad generous) that I don't really give a flying fυΓk about politics.
Thanks coach...I try to put my contributions in little parables...to mix it up .....some may follow and some may not...just think of me like Jesus...only without Kathy Griffin mad at me...later on we can speak of the mustard seed...and more about the Babe's hot dog.
If you keep calling me coach and talking about baseballs and hot dogs, I just might fall in love with you.
Or I'll start taking like titus(insert # here)...
Now, now coach this is getting too much like catholic school...but maybe we can work together to forge a minimum level of civility that allows heated discourse without unnecessary nastiness....just a thought.
Name: Clifford Terry Kresge
Birthdate: Oct. 3, 1968
Birthplace: Lakewood, NJ
Height: 6'0
Weight: 195
Residence: Apopka, Florida
That lasted a long time...didn't it.
Hey, Cliff has a Birthday coming up! Have you been thinking about what to get him?
I can't watch the guy give a speech. I've seen him live a few times; it's just as bad then.
He really is better when he is speaking extemporaneously, except when he is trying to hard to say the right things, then he gets all freezy.
I think, for Bush, it really matters who he's talking to more than what he is saying. He can't talk to a camera. I have seen him two times in front of hostile audiences, and he was awful. The one time he was in front of an audience friendly to him, he was much better.
As far as voting for him, I voted him because I am a Republican and because he was better than the annoying school marms he was up against. I strongly support the war. I honestly don't see how (1) anyone could call his domestic policies a failure and (2) how anyone can look at Bush's and Clinton's domestic policies as markedly different.
I wonder what it's like to be the nephew of Ann Althouse ??
Sons can rebel and that's considered normal, to a point.
But a nephew....I don't know. I'm wondering if a nephew has certain duties and obligations ???
Palladian said..."Everything afterwards is just like the world's most boring variations on the world's most trite themes. Kind of like Mozart."
Well, I'll be damned. Finally, I have run into someone who agrees with me about Mozart! Great post.
that annoying electronic buzz in the background
Maybe it's time for a new tv.
"Maxine will comment about someone's shoes and perhaps creepily link to a scan of one of Althouse's son's 3rd grade class picture."---Palladian
It's called Cognitive Dissonance--and it's a high art form which you fail to appreciate.
Padlum, I have never used all capitol letters in any of my posts, sorry for bursting your bubble regarding you insightfulness of my posts.
Also, Padlum I am actually a top-believe it or not.
You on the other hand sound like a bossy bottoms.
Bossy Bottoms are boring. Harder, over here, deeper, more-it is quite a bit of work to constantly try to meet the demands of the bossy bottom.
Padlum will be go off on all of the other commenters because he is a bitter old queen who never has sex and instead just bitches in the comment sections of blogs.
Padlum likes to think of himself as insightful, perceptive hag but he is really more like the old queen you see in some club and say to your friends, "if you see me here at that things age please shoot me."
Is HX magazine still around? That is so late 80's early 90's gay-
"Well, I'll be damned. Finally, I have run into someone who agrees with me about Mozart! Great post."
If you like that, then you'll love Glenn Gould's opinion of Mozart. I'm pretty much a Baroque and early music listener, but I have nothing against the classical period. Indeed, there's almost nothing in Mozart that I can't find, with much more enjoyment, in Haydn.
"Padlum will be go off on all of the other commenters because he is a bitter old queen who never has sex and instead just bitches in the comment sections of blogs."
What are you talking about? I'm 32 years old, and have been bitter since childhood.
How old are you, honey?
And I have a boyfriend, so you'll have to drop the sexual frustration hypothesis. I'm actually quite a nice person in person. Come to the Althouse meetup and find out, if you can drag yourself out of the showers at the gym for long enough.
I'm sorry.....you have a lover...and as I said sorry you don't have sex.
I'm 80 but don't look a day over 60.
When you mentioned HX I think of that as some relic of the gay past so I assumed you were older-I was mistaken. Never mind my age bitch, that is personal.
Also, I don't shower at the gym-I used to do that but ended up never working out-now I never even go into the locker room to avoid the distraction-baby steps, one day at a time.
Also, I was going to post this is the section where Ann had posted about someone being celibate for a period of time. I was celibate from 9/11 to just this past summer where I finally began to have sex again-my lover was killed on 9/11-honestly-I stopped speaking with many of my friends because over the past many years I have been catatonic. For some reason I came out of it just this summer. We had an open relationship though.
Ann Althouse said...
"The soft bigotry of low expectations."
Perhaps.
How long did that go on? I fell asleep.
palladian,
Subject matter aside, it is always a joy to read your comments - I study them in hopes of improving my own writing.
Have you ever thought of entering the Hemmingway contest?
Other Althouse commenters I wish I could write as well as:
Simon
John Stoddard
Pogo
Doyle (on a good day)
hdhouse (shock) has also scored some thought provokers in excellent prose recently.
I've read all of you out loud to friends and students recently.
And, I wish I had the wit of Drill Sgt.
Is it the Althouse blog that brings out the talent, or are you guys already good?
Torpor has ensued.
Eesh, Bush really is an atrocious public speaker. I always prefer to read his speeches instead of watching them. I usually agree with most of his ideas relating to the war, but he has a knack for making them sound bad when I actually have to hear him talk about them.
Did anyone else catch Bush's use of the verb "overwatching?" It was in the part about the troops' new role in the future and referred to their guidance of the Iraqi police.
I can usually tell when the guy is winging it and one of those awkward mashed-up words comes out (he usually looks like he can't believe he just said that either), but this seemed to me like it was in the speech originally. Is there a reason "overseeing" was passed over for this more awkward word?
Simon,
You forgot to mention me in your compliments of writing styles...
now thank you you shouldn't have...I don't even try to be so good I think it comes naturally.
Seven Machos said...
He really is better when he is speaking extemporaneously ...
My favorite Bush quote:
"Most of the people coming into this country are decent, hard-working people. But some of them are evil. And we must destroy the evil ones."
This was shortly after 9/11. He was talking about terrorists coming here from Canada.
I pictured squads of Marines at the borders launching missiles at individual terrorists. How else do you "destroy the evil ones"?
Is there a reason "overseeing" was passed over for this more awkward word?
I didn't hear the context, however it may have slipped in from DoD briefings.
overwatching is an Army term.
frankly overseeing sounds patronizing to me anyway.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve;
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,
As much as we this night have overwatch’d.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguil’d
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels, and new jollity.
But that meant staying up too late. Sometimes I say I've overwatched TV, to mean I'm watching too much TV. Maybe "oversee" seems bad because "oversight" usually means something isn't seen.
I support our mission in Iraq. As a result, I am excused from watching him speak.
I don't watch Britney thinking "this time, she'll be good", either.
I'm unsure of her mission, though. Seems to be about a one-way bus trip to the trailer court of broken dreams.
But the sgt. is right, if I can trust Wikipedia:
"In modern warfare, overwatch is the state of one small unit or military vehicle supporting another unit, while they are executing fire and movement tactics. An overwatching, or supporting unit has taken a position where it can observe the terrain ahead, especially likely enemy positions. This allows it to provide effective covering fire for advancing friendly units. The term overwatch originates in U.S. military doctrine."
It's not in my dictionary though.
referred to their guidance of the Iraqi police.
Providing guidance and direction is *overseeing*, and probably why that wasn't the word he used.
Troops in overwatch provide protection. They aren't directing the actions of the units they overwatch.
I love that they waited until the end of his speech to invoke 9/11. And I love the obligatory Letter From A Dead Solider's Family. The one last night even included a bumper sticker slogan: "Freedom isn't free!"
Bush is such an honorable, smart, and brave man.
Yes, Bush used "overwatch" purposefully.
And the liberal grammar police, having never served, nor not knowing anyone who ever served, save for Scott Thomas Beauchamp, will excoriate him for their illiteracy.
Ann...please....I don't think GWB grabbed overwatched from Shakespeare.....that truly would be a dream on this late-summer night.
Palladian: Loved your very accurate prediction/summary! Well done: One very small nitpick: Cutty Sark would be used in a Rob Roy; Bourbon would be the mainstay of an old fashioned (if memory serves).
roger...my mom used to drink cutty sark rob roys and used canadian club for manhattans...the off shoot being that after the second one - and i'm talking big glasses with lots of cherries, rock cold on at a hot southern late afternoon cocktail hour it made very little difference that i could discern.
The Blogger gets the commenters she deserves.
We can't choose our family. We don't choose our parents, and so too....Althouse is stuck with whoever walks through the door.
Of course, if she could....she would love to cherry-pick the exact type of commenter who shares her worldview, loves Ingmar Bergman, doesn't psychoanalyze her personal life, and understands her creativity.
But she can't hand-pick. Althouse is, yet again, trapped! She's stuck with whoever ambles on in.
To deserve you as a commentator, the professor would have to have been Pol Pot in a prior life. I don’t think her karmic debt is that great.
HD: great story--you could replicate that story for many parts of the south changing the drink to mint julips (basically, a sweetened minted bourbon slushy in a 12 oz glass); after two of those no one remembers very much of the cocktail hour!
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