Desperate Presidents

I didn't know that the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was a vacuum, or that it was drenched in pixie dust. Did you?

President Bush thinks it is.

Bush Thursday delivered a blistering, sometimes correct, and even damned interesting speech there. It was a landmark speech in this presidency, there is no doubt about it, one that delivered a few dramatic shifts.

Rather than addressing America's stateless enemies with the vague, broad classification of "terrorists," Bush flat-out put his finger on it: America's greatest enemy in the world is Islamic fundamentalism. We've not tended to name our enemy so clearly since Bush was chided for referring to this effort as a "crusade." Also, the speech directly addressed the dynamic that actually drives their hatred of the United States: Global Jew-hating.

Oddly enough, Bush resorted to drawing fierce parallels between Islamic fundamentalism and, of all groups, communists. That was weird.

Not so weird but more completely expected was Bush's continued effort to disucuss the Stupid War in terms of September The Eleventh.

--Bush claimed that the United States has thwarted ten terrorist attacks since The September The Eleventh.

--Bush certainly does seem interested in UBL again, doesn't he?

--Finally, in a more predictible vein: When will these people stop insisting that Saddam was in one of those aeroplanes? Holy cow.