ED MORRISSEY will be liveblogging Bush’s speech. No time-travel involved.
UPDATE: More liveblogging here: Just scroll up.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Saw all but the first couple of minutes. A good job, I thought, though Bush’s delivery is never impressive. (And he had that “Jeezus I can’t believe I have to explain this stuff again! — don’t you guys read Den Beste?” expression from time to time. Okay, I was kidding about the Den Beste part. Kind of.) He made the key points, though, and — which is more important — I suspect that the Administration will keep making them in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus has an observation on deadline-fever.
MORE: Ian Schwartz has the video of the President’s speech.
STILL MORE: Lorie Byrd: “I agree with Mort Kondracke that tonight’s was one of George Bush’s best speeches. (Transcript here.) It was clear and concise, and obviously heartfelt. The President made a strong, if familiar, case for the importance of the Iraq War to the general war on terror. He also made a good case for the contention that we are making progress and we will prevail.”
Donald Sensing: “Overall, I don’t rate this speech very high – no better than a ‘B’ and maybe B-minus. . . . The speech reads betters than it hears. I think that Bush’s delivery, never stellar, was below even his par tonight.”
John Hinderaker: “There was nothing in it that we and our readers didn’t already know, but the message is one that many rarely hear.”
Brendan Loy, on the other hand, was considerably less impressed.
MORE STILL: Smash liveblogged it, too. And Hugh Hewitt observes:
That is the key point in the speech, the key point in the debate, and the president’s clarity in making it made it a very successful speech. Over and over again he and his Administration, his supporters and the military must make that point again and again: It is all one war.
Reportedly, David Gergen is offended at the mention of 9/11. Perhaps if Gergen’s media friends mentioned it more often, Bush could mention it less . . . .
Kaus, on the other hand, thinks that Bush’s speech was “too Presidential.”
FINALLY: Thoughts on Jefferson and Trotsky.