A few thoughts on tonight's Presidential Address

• Extremely perceptive remark right near the start of the address, noting a clear dividing line of thought (a "line" that more closely resembles the Great Wall of China) on the causes of terrorism--provoked, or non-provoked? If we just left these people alone, they wouldn't attack us anymore, right? (Left unsaid by the Ward Churchills of the world is that the only way to leave them alone to their satisfaction would be to obliterate the world's telecommunications networks, dismantle all the international corporations, and plunge the globe back into the 19th century, never again to return.)
  

• The Iraqi constitution, as I understand matters, numbers among its major faults the fact that, much like the original American constitution, it doesn't say anything about secession--leaving open the possiblity of the Kurds trying to follow the lead of the Confederate States of America and carve a Kurdistan out of Iraq's territory. President Bush understandably didn't say anything about those (and other) problems, given the optimistic tone he was aiming for, but the Americans in Iraq had better get on them, and fast.

• When you look at the whole, there was really nothing new in anything Bush said tonight. You don't even have to go to the blogosphere to see the arguments--they've all been hashed out ad nauseum in the mainstream media. No one who had a position before the speech is going to be moved to change their position one whit.

All Bush is doing is spinning his wheels. He played his cards months ago, and is now simply waiting for improvements in the situation in Iraq to bail him out.

That can't make anyone in the GOP the least bit comfortable.