Fun read

Howard Kurtz tallies commentary on the President's speech:

At Americablog, John Aravosis says the speech was "all about Iraq. Surprise. What a pathetic little man. Rather than give a speech that Ronald Reagan might give, about our sorrow and the hope for our future, Bush decided to go political, giving the nation a laundry list of how great he is, how wonderful HE has done, and by implication, why everyone should vote Republican in the fall. The man is simply pathetic. Today isn't about Iraq. It's about the dead. It's about our grief. And about our future. It's about all of us. But it is most certainly not about Iraq nor George Bush's personal report card."

The Boston Globe notes, "In his blitzkrieg of 9/11 speeches, Bush has lumped together numerous countries, foreign leaders, religious figures, and political movements under one banner -- as supporters of terrorism -- and ignored the differences among them. On the stump, this conveys a sense of moral clarity, of a battle between good people and evil people, suggesting a clean distinction can be made. But it also has led to a widespread misunderstanding -- that all the people cited by Bush are working in concert against the United States."

And Greg Sargent of The American Prospect looks closely at the NYT: "The big news orgs have been pushing the idea that the White House's planned commemmoration of Sept. 11 was somehow intended as apolitical -- when it wasn't intended that way at all. Check out how the New York Times characterized the Dem reaction to President Bush's speech Monday night using 9/11 to defend his disastrous war in Iraq:

" Mr. Bush's address brought to a close a day when leaders of both parties put aside, at least for the moment, the acrimony that has characterized the national security debate since the brief period of national unity after the attacks. But as soon as the speech was over, the partisanship flared again. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the president 'should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning' to justify his Iraq policy."

Got that? The partisanship only 'flared' after the president's speech, when Dems attacked him for it. But here's what the president said: " 'Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.'"

Gotta run. Best check out the beachlike, color-coded safety flags to see how safe your hometown streets will be today...