Partisan analysis from the Web

So, what did Bush's speech add up to? For some partisan analysis, we go to the Web.

David Corn of The Nation, writing in his blog of Bush's defense of the Iraq war: "This is--to be polite--an absurd analysis." Not all of it is polite.

John Hinderaker at the blog Power Line, writing about the same war: "It is, really, an amazing record of progress."

At the National Review Online, there's a "symposium" of right-of-center reactions to the president's speech:

Linda Chavez: "One of the best lines in the speech — 'hindsight alone is not wisdom and second-guessing is not a strategy' — summed up perfectly why the Democrats have failed to convince most Americans they would keep the country safe in this dangerous, post 9/11 world."

Amy Kauffman thought the House chamber where Bush spoke looked a bit like the stadium where a certain sports event will occur this Sunday:

" ... what was most astounding about this speech was not what was said by the president, but rather what the viewers at home saw regarding the in-house audience. It was like watching fans from Seattle and Detroit at the Superbowl. When one side of the House stood up to cheer, the other side sat in silence." Be forewarned: she's a Pittsburg fan.

"Bush phones it in," is the headline at the Democratic blog, NewDonkey.com:

"You don't have to be a Democrat to realize how strangely empty and disjointed this speech truly was: twenty minutes of abstract uplift; another twenty minutes or so restating his 2004 Fear Offensive on national security and using it to justify everything he's doing in Iraq and at home; and then a fifteen-minute drive-by on everything else."

Before the speech, the White House suggested Bush would focus on medical savings accounts for a major chunk of his speech. As it turned out, he didn't. However, liberal blogger Kevin Drum examined what Bush, and the White House Web site, say about this vehicle and concludes:

"My point from Tuesday stands: these proposals sound pretty good, don't they? Needless to say, I agree that this is a pitifully inadequate answer to a big problem, and I can already think of several good ways to make that point. Still, big picture arguments aside, these changes are going to appeal on their merits to a lot of people. Just sayin."

On the same page, Drum has his live blog of the speech from last night. Sample:

"Roosevelt to Truman to Kennedy to Reagan"? What happened to Ike and Nixon and Ford and Dad? Is Bush embarrassed of his own party?"