[the speech]

Topic: Politics
So I watched the president’s speech this morning, downloaded from C-SPAN. Ick. Tepid applause for his various plans for the poor, a giant roar of approval for tax reform (i.e., elimination of tax on capital, shifting the whole burden onto labor), a giant roar for tort reform. A reiteration of the misquote that John Kerry believes the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood (in fact, he said that a group of entertainers gathered in Radio City Music Hall in New York City “conveyed the heart and soul of our country” [emphasis added]). Lots of bullshit about making America safer and the world more free.

Probably the weirdest aspect of the speech was Bush’s pronunciation of “rather.” He used the word twice, each time pronouncing it “rohther” with a fine New England prep-school cadence that a young John Kerry might have adopted in his Kennedy-conscious youth. It seemed like a last trace of the elitist background that Dubya has tried to bury under an adopted Texas twang. Someone should tell him that real Texans don’t say “rohther.”

But they’ve gone home now, right? We can have our city back? And then maybe next January we can have our country back?