It's Not A Political Speech

The President's prime-time "commemoration" of September 11 spent about 5 minutes on September 11, and close to 10 on defending his decision to go into Iraq. We know that Iraq had nothing to do with September 11, which is why Bush said last week that "the hardest part of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." So he took 20 minutes in prime time attempting to do just that.

And I don't think this made anybody happy. Here's Dan Froomkin:

The occasion called for reflection and an attempt to unify the nation in its grief and determination. In fact, it was billed as such by the White House.

Instead, Bush delivered a leaden rehash of his unpersuasive rationales for his response to the threat of terrorism. He made a carefully crafted attempt to terrify Americans into supporting his deeply unpopular war in Iraq. He was misleading. He mischaracterized his critics.

It's hard to imagine that he could have been more divisive if he'd tried. And with most Americans no longer trusting the president, it's hard to imagine the speech served him well.

A decent President would actually have not done a political speech. Fighting for his party's life, Bush did not have that luxury. And it came off as crass, out of place and unpersuasive. It looked like the last speech of a condemned man.