Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Better With Age
Michael Gerson’s tenor is consistently becoming more historic. And the President’s oratory is improving in inverse with his hair.
While I don’t think this was the President’s best speech (that honor will forever belong to his gritty proclamation atop 9/11 rubble), it was one of the better SotU speeches, and certainly bested his first inaugural address.
There was, as per usual with Gerson, technical virtuosity. I couldn’t help but beam as Bush announced, “The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else,” because I knew what was coming next. The Democrats did not. They snuck in an applause in an attempt to score a political interception. But they didn’t know in which direction their endzone was. The President corrected them: “That is one of the main differences between us and our enemies.” It was a beautiful moment, because it squares so perfectly Bush’s policy and America’s founding premise. And it showcases so brilliantly the inherent hypocrisy in modern liberalism.
The Democrats further harmed their cause in this speech, and the harm came, once again, of their own volition. They “boo’d” the President of the United States on a simple domestic fiscal issue while later showing either ambivalence or restrained concurrence on far more important issues of safety, defense, and medicine. It was clear that the “boo” was pre-planned; more partisan statements earned nothing but silence from the left side of the aisle. Either the Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to “boo” on the basis of their individual beliefs, or they realized their folly at the beginning and nixed the other plans.
As for Bush, his delivery was middling. His constant hard consonants (as in ‘duty’) mitigate the effect when he tries to deliberately stress them (as in ‘victory’). He still says nuk-u-lar. (Though, in his defense, my highly intelligent engineer friend says the same thing.) Bush was stronger in his inaugural address- emboldened by the pomp, perhaps. But he was saved here by Gerson’s well-orchestrated pathos.
The most powerful part of this speech was the section on American soldiers. It garnered not only thunderous applause and a notably extended standing ovation, but registered an emotional effect on many viewers, including me. When President Bush invoked the memory of Sergeant Byron Norwood, and recognized his parents, it meant something. Americans are used to President invoking their emotions for political gain. They had eight years of “I feel your pain.” When Bill Clinton pointed to military parents, it meant very little. It was insincere, and came off that way.
It meant something here. ‘You’ve done your job, mom. Now it’s my turn to protect you.’ Ladies and gentlemen, with grateful hearts, we honor freedom’s defenders, and our military families, represented here this evening by Sergeant Norwood’s mom and dad, Janet and Bill Norwood.
President Bush invoked FDR, black Americans, AIDS, healthcare, female-owned businesses, and social security. For decades these were Democrat buzzwords. He has taken them over. This wizardry should not go overlooked. We have seen significant legislative victories in the past four years. Gerson slyly noted today that there shall be more. When Democrats stand up and applaud at a paragraph that includes, “We will not set an artificial timetable for leaving Iraq, because that would embolden the terrorists and make them believe they can wait us out,” Bush is on top. Lines like “I will listen to anyone who has a good idea to offer,” put him on the moral high ground with Social Security.
This speech’s power was in its engineering. Bush started moving quickly after November 2nd, 2004. The gameplan was presented before the nation this evening, and Bushco is clearly firing on all cylinders. I’m going to read the Democrat response this evening, but if I were a liberal, I’d feel very weak right now.
UPDATE: Roundup of pro-Bush reactions here.
Roundup of anti-Bush reactions here.
Posted on February 2, 2005 10:18 PM. Permalink 