Bushed
Well, thank god that’s over. First polls show a 3-point bounce, which is not insurmountable if Kerry wakes up and starts going after the Party of Fear like he really means it. As to Bush’s speech, I found it rather tedious and pedantic – not memorably offensive like the banshee lunatic Miller, but nothing that will do him much good in the long (or even the short) run. In my morning cruise of the blogosphere today, I found a few more reactions that express my views in somewhat greater depth than I’m prepared to write myself:
Matt Yglesias observes:
The only problem, really, with the president's big speech last night was that the policies he's actually pursuing bear little resemblance to the policies he was talking about, the candidate he's actually running against bears little resemblance to the candidate he was talking about, and the world he's actually living in bears little resemblance to the world he was talking about. But in the Platonic realm of Words it was a good speech, and probably did for Bush about as much as any speech could.
The conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, whose grip on reality has finally proven stronger than whatever Kool Aid they were handing out at the Bush Rally, notes (in the context of generally liking the speech):
People like me who became conservatives because of the appeal of smaller government and more domestic freedom are now marginalized in a big-government party, bent on using the power of the state to direct people's lives, give them meaning and protect them from all dangers.
Just remember all that Bush promised last night: an astonishingly expensive bid to spend much more money to help people in ways that conservatives once abjured. He pledged to provide record levels of education funding, colleges and healthcare centers in poor towns, more Pell grants, seven million more affordable homes, expensive new HSAs, and a phenomenally expensive bid to reform the social security system. I look forward to someone adding it all up, but it's easily in the trillions. And Bush's astonishing achievement is to make the case for all this new spending, at a time of chronic debt (created in large part by his profligate party), while pegging his opponent as the "tax-and-spend" candidate. The chutzpah is amazing. At this point, however, it isn't just chutzpah. It's deception. To propose all this knowing full well that we cannot even begin to afford it is irresponsible in the deepest degree. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the only difference between Republicans and Democrats now is that the Bush Republicans believe in Big Insolvent Government and the Kerry Democrats believe in Big Solvent Government. By any measure, that makes Kerry - especially as he has endorsed the critical pay-as-you-go rule on domestic spending - easily the choice for fiscal conservatives. [emphasis added]
Slate’s moderate Will Saletan sums up thusly:
Recession. Unemployment. Corporate fraud. A war based on false premises that has cost us $200 billion and nearly a thousand American lives. They're all hills we've "been given to climb." It's as though Bush wasn't president. As though he didn't get the tax cuts he wanted. As though he didn't bring about postwar Iraq and authorize the planning for it. All this was "given," and now Bush can show up, three and a half years into his term, and start solving the problems some other president else left behind.
It's all downhill from here, he assures us. The mountain precedes the valley. Because the results have been bad, they'll start to be good—but only if we keep doing the same thing. Everything that hasn't happened will happen…
…My favorite moment was when Bush touted the No Child Left Behind Act. No more social promotion, he promised. "We are transforming our schools by raising standards and focusing on results. We are insisting on accountability."
Wasn't this speech, full of unfulfilled promises and appeals to good character, basically a plea for social promotion? Isn't that the message of the entire Bush campaign? Shouldn't the president have to show results, too?
Finally, Sam Rosenfeld at Tapped comments:
I must say I expected "ownership society" to be drilled into the American people's psyche by the end of this convention, and certainly by the end of this speech. I thought liberal journalists were going to have to gird themselves for an exausting and futile pushback effort to demystify the term and shatter its power as it ascended inexorably to "death tax" and "partial birth" and "compassionate conservative" status.
But, blessedly, it didn't really happen. The policies themselves were b-list items, Bush phoned in his delivery, and none of it seemed to gel into a compelling answer to widespread concerns about the Bush campaign punting on domestic matters.
Not really a broad cross-section of opinion, I must say, but reflecting my own views at greater length than I have time for today.
Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!
9:08:35 AM 
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