Shrub talks to/at the DNC Winter Meeting

Bush is on TV right now giving an address to the DNC Winter Meeting. He was invited and I guess he gets points for showing up. The tone is weird, he is clearly trying to walk a line between sticking to his policies/talking points while making conciliatory efforts towards the new majority party. It is awkward but he is getting some applause especially on healthcare for all and comprehensive immigration reform. The mention of no child left behind didn't win him any friends, though. Wow he just mentioned Darfur, apparently we are going to stay focused on it. It took him two-thirds of the way through the speech to even mention Iraq (interesting in part because CNN was displaying a split screen with the live speech and updates on a major bus bombing in Baghdad with a rising death toll, currently at 102 and 215 injured) The speech was a little wattered-down state of the uniony not much new but it is going to be followed by a private Q & A which might be more critical/interesting.

My favorite line was when he stuttered out something along the lines of I hope you don't believe that I think if you don't agree with me then you are not a patriot, I know people think that but it is just not true Seriously??? that has basically been the battle cry of the neocons since 9/11 - how many did he call the Democrats the party of cut and run this past election cycle alone? How many critics of the war have been compared to terrorists, been accused of hating america, freedom, etc.

-A. Monkey