Fast forgotten

President Bush's speech was predictable and unenlightening and I expect it to fade from view very quickly.

He's still out to bamboozle the American people by linking 911 and his ill-gotten war in Iraq. He's still trying to divide Americans, rather than uniting them. He's still leaving his incompetent defense secretary in place. And he's still engaging in happy-talk and empty-bravado.

But...

Once your credibility is gone you cannot lie with success. While the president tried to again use our troops as props in his pageant, they refused to play along and clapped exactly once and even then had to be coerced into it.

Here's what I've learned. When you have war whose purpose is to ward off an actual threat (from a fleet of unmanned, aerial, WMD-laden vehicles, say) there is no need to lie to the American people. They will sacrifice and they will fight like hell to defend America. But, when you lie to Americans and their children start to die and the threat evaporates they lose respect for you.

A President is essentially a confidence peddler and nothing is more undignified in a President than pomp devoid of trust, and that is where we are now. Our President is a used-car salesman peddling a lemon and we aren't interested.

This is a palpable feeling which now envelopes President Bush. If he weren't so arrogant I might be capable of compassion for him, but instead I find myself uninterested in him or his likely B.S. In other words I am waiting for the next administration and it's as if he doesn't exist anymore.

Here is the full text of the President's speech. There's nothing new in it and I don't trust the messenger, but a good way to leverage the internets is to provide the whole context and not simply an interpretation.

Lonely and pathetic