WP, Shales on Bush speech: "No Fastball" (tears fought back or induced?)

[DeepModem Mom]

George Bush, No Fastball From the Mound

By Tom Shales
Friday, September 3, 2004; Page C01

It's doubtful that four more years in office would turn George W. Bush into a great speechmaker, but that he's improving was evident last night when he stood on a circular stage meant to suggest a pitcher's mound and made his case for a second term to near-deafening cheers at the Republican National Convention in New York.

Bush still has problems maintaining poise. Twice, when cheers from the crowd were interrupted by jeers from protesters -- who were quickly hustled out of the hall by security guards and police -- Bush looked flustered, even frightened, though he did keep reading from the prompting devices encircling him. Ronald Reagan in the same situation would have responded with a quip and dismissed the protesters with a tolerant smile. Bush clung carefully to his text, his eyes darting anxiously around the hall.

The interior of Madison Square Garden, home to the convention, was remodeled for the Bush appearance. The "pitcher's mound" motif grew out of the narration for a Republican-made video about Bush's life, but not all networks were willing to show it. CBS ignored it for comment from its own reporters. Fox News Channel showed the video with "RNC Video" superimposed in a corner of the screen. CNN did the same.

Taking no chances, Bush opened and closed the speech with remarks keyed to the vicious assaults by suicidal extremists on Sept. 11, 2001, and remarks about terrorism generally. In the last 10 minutes of the speech, as he reeled off emotional anecdotes, Bush was trying either to fight back tears or to induce them....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57987-2004Sep3.html

[girl gone mad]

1. Nice jab at tweety:

Bob Schieffer of CBS News had the guts to tell anchor Dan Rather that the speech "just quite frankly was too long" and that many of the supposedly bold proposals Bush was making had a very familiar ring to them. But Chris Matthews, hoppin' happy in his anchor seat over on cable's MSNBC, chose to see the speech as an unqualified smash and, continuing the baseball motif, said of Bush, "I'm sure he knows he's hit a home run tonight."

Not really. It came off more like "The State of the Union, Part 2," a sequel, heavy on repetition, to a speech Bush already gave this year.

[JSJ]

2. "looked flustered, even frightened" - bush must know how...

...unloved a leader he really is. And this from the only president to travel abroad with a 7,000 man security detail (Liberia for one). Go to zell, Bush.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. In debates, get Bush flustered. Push buttons. He has several deep ones.

Bush still has problems maintaining poise. Twice, when cheers from the crowd were interrupted by jeers from protesters -- who were quickly hustled out of the hall by security guards and police -- Bush looked flustered, even frightened, though he did keep reading from the prompting devices encircling him. Ronald Reagan in the same situation would have responded with a quip and dismissed the protesters with a tolerant smile. Bush clung carefully to his text, his eyes darting anxiously around the hall.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Has plenty of "swagger," but seems to lack courage that should go with it

Interesting that Shales contrasts to Reagan; not a big fan, but Reagan saw no need to swagger, or Texas-walk, yet showed courage under gunfire, and could actually ride a horse.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Bush is All Hat, No Cattle.

Bush focused on war on terror not: Bush wanted Iraq so bad he was willing to abandon Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden.

Bush fiscally responsible not: Bush added $2,000,000,000,000 (two trillion dollars) to the national debt. That is about $7,000 dollars for every man woman and child in the US.

Bush is resolute, single-minded not: Bush flip flops on 9-11 commission, Homeland Security department, nation building, and the war on terror (abandons it for Iraq). At other times he is stubbornly wrong, miscalculating and misleading while all the time passing the buck.

[sandraj]

8. Yup. He can't think on his feet

and can't go off-script. During the rare times he is unscripted or has a spontaneous moment, his nastiness and immaturity come out. It would be all too easy for Kerry to pick him apart in an unscripted debate ~ the fake sincere image Bush tried to project last night is only a very superficial veneer. It will fall apart completely when challenged.

Regarding the stupid CNN poll, whether Bush "made a case" for a second term... a 20-minute speech (or however long it was) is not going to change the train wreck that has characterized his first term. Anyone who votes for him at this point deserves what they get. "Fool me once" and all that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. But Bush is a masterdebater! (wink) He has never lost a debate!

[ellie]

4. He was going to cry?

What a girlie-man!

[Hubert Flottz]

7. He's So sensitive!

I cry every time I see the twerp on TV!

[PA Democrat]

6. The NYT did not give Bush's speech a good grade either

"When President Bush accepted his party's nomination last night, he energetically presented himself as the man who could keep America safe in a time of international terrorism. His handlers believe that is the key to his re-election. But if Mr. Bush intends to have a second term, he needs to do something more - particularly if he hopes to win by more than 500 votes this time. The president needs to speak to the large number of moderate voters who feel that things have been going in the wrong direction over the last four years, and convince them that he has the capacity to learn from mistakes and do better. On that count, his acceptance speech fell short.

Despite the enormous changes the United States has undergone since the last election, from terror attacks to recession, Mr. Bush has been sticking resolutely to the priorities he brought into the office in 2001. He won his tax cuts and his education initiative. American foreign policy managed to wind up focused on the same country on which Mr. Bush and his advisers had fixated from the beginning.

Each of those policies has cost the nation dearly: the tax cuts have exploded the budget deficit, Mr. Bush has failed to finance his education programs adequately, and the war in Iraq has been fumbled from the day Baghdad fell. Nobody expected the president to admit that any of his initiatives had turned out to be less than smashing successes, but wavering voters might have been buoyed by at least a hint that the administration realizes that the course needs adjustment."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/03/opinion/03fri1.html

What speech were the TV pundits watching?

[George W. Dunce]

11. He is 2 and 0

Lets calm down. It's not as if he is 500-0. I am wondering, did he debate his opponent when he lost his run for congress? I have seen Kerry debate against Weld. Kerry is also pretty capable.