He Came, He Saw, He Shrugged

Barack Obama delivered a speech last night.  Did you know that?  If I wasn't a blogger, I'm not sure I would have.  For a man whose overhyped reputation is as the greatest orator who ever lived, his dime-a-dozen, mail-it-in "historic speeches of the week" gimmick has gotten so old and busted that.  Maybe it has more than a little to do with the fact that everything he says is crap, and even everything you say is crap, it doesn't matter how well you say it, because it's still crap.  And, honestly, he ain't saying it so well anymore.

The speech was on Iraq, BTW, and how U.S. combat forces are leaving right on schedule, rather than after Iraq has a government in place and has military forces that can not just "maintain security," but also defend the country from Iranian/Syrian invasion.  He even gave it from the Oval Office, for some reason.  I guess they figured it was expected of him.

Let's see: He never mentioned victory, he never admitted he was wrong about the Surge, and while he did mention speaking to President Bush yesterday afternoon, he said zip, zero, nada about the phone conversation (which should give you a pretty good idea of how it went).  That's not to suggest that it was necessarily a shouting match; I kind of picture Barry dialing up the ranch in Crawford and when Dubya picked up, the L'il President did one of those pranks that Bart Simpson used to do to Moe the bartender.  Just so he could say without technically lying that he did, in fact, "speak to FORMER President Bush."  Which makes it a net loss for him to mention it if the only thing he could, or was going to, say is, "His patriotism and support of the troops is ALMOST AS STRONG AS MINE".

Oh, and he got bored half way through and lapsed into his "Recovery Summer" horseshit before TOTUS frantically waved him back on-message, sterile and phony though it was.

To me this feels like a rehash of the preview I already posted last weekend, which couldn't help but be spot-on in lieu of B.O.'s wearisome predictability.  Not even half way through his term and he's already "soldiering" on not out of fun or satisfaction or even a sense of duty, but out of stubbornness and spite - and the perqs.

I don't know 'bout y'all, but I don't have time for any more of an analysis, and if I did, it just wouldn't interest me enough to bother.  If you're interested, there are in-depth parsings all over the rightosphere.  My favorite was Jonah Goldberg's.  Any loose end he didn't tie off, Ramirez took care of in his daily 'toon installment.

If you'll excuse me, I have serious work to do.