David of Thunder Run has an excellent round up of the reactions from the left and the right on Bush’s speech. He should be commended for reading so many reactions on the left 🙂
I think that I benefited from reading and not watching Bush give the speech because I wasn’t distracted by his presentation (which is usually quite bad), I think the substance was the issue not the way he presents himself. I know many find him inarticulate and fault him for not selling the war and I agree that it would be great if he were another Reagan but when you go to the White House website and read his speeches you see that he gets it, he makes an excellent case for the war in Iraq. He isn’t a great communicator but he does have good speech writers and you can tell that he cares about this issue and that he won’t give up. That’s what I want in a leader, someone who will be guided by principle and won’t be swayed by the desire to be popular. He understands what needs to be done and he does it, that’s a good leader, not someone who is all rhetoric but no substance.