The President Speaks

(And for once the audience listens)

President Bush spoke for almost exactly a half hour last evening at 8:00 PM. Since all of the TV networks carried the speech in its entirety, I guess that all of the people out there that bitch and complain when the president speaks during prime time were happy that the brevity of his comments only interrupted one mindless Reality-TV show or other-video based waste of time.

I missed most of the speech when it was broadcast live because I forgot about the 8:00 PM start time and was occupied with dinner and preparations for entertaining some of Pat’s family visiting for the balance of the week and the weekend.

I got to watch the replay of the speech at 2:00 AM on FOX news and was impressed with President Bush’s delivery and message. You can find the entire transcript here on the Fox News Website.

“Is the sacrifice worth it…?” President Bush asked in front of a group of troops assembled at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. He then set about in his message to explain to the American people why the sacrifice of his audience (the troops) is in fact worth their efforts, gains, and losses.

“America’s mission in Iraq is to defeat an enemy, and give strength to a Friend…a sovereign Iraqi government.”

Next he answered the question about an exit strategy and a “timeline” for removal of our troops from the region:

“As the Iraqi’s stand up, we will stand down…we’ve made progress, but we have a lot more work to do.”

“Setting an artificial timetable for our withdrawal would send the wrong message to the Iraqi People… that need to know that America will not leave before the job is done.”

The President even gave out a link the www.americasupportsyou.mil/ website that details what Americans are doing here at home in support of the troops.

The interesting thing to me was the silence in the lecture hall while the president was talking. Only his line “…and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won” got applause, as well as his closing statement that “they (the foreign forces) are no match for the Unites States Military.

Otherwise, no applause, and no lack of applause, no hoots or cat-calls at each of his comments, regardless of the obvious exciting content. Apparently the attendees had orders to sit in their seats and listen to what the President had to say rather than attempting to make partisan commentary with the enthusiasm or lack thereof.

I turned my TV over to NBC and saw the tail end of House Democratic Minority leader Nancy Pelosi’s “rebuttal” comments. Excuse me for putting it this way, but I think that “Ms.” Pelosi is an intellectually dishonest partisan hack, an idiot, and she is apparently deaf. Congresswoman Pelosi’s comments consisted entirely of a call for the president to “level with the American People,” and answer the very questions that the president answered in his speech in the preceding half hour.

Hey “Ms.” Pelosi, the president was talking to you, me, and the balance of the American people last evening, but you and most of your Democratic colleagues are obviously too blinded by partisan hatred of our commander-in-chief and unconcerned for the safety of our military to hold your tongues else temper your comments with reasoned intellectual thought.

(Hat tip to Captain Ed over at Captains Quarters for the link to the Americasupportsyou website and the guys over at Powerline for the link to the speech transcript.)