WaPo analysis of *'s speech pretty tepid

[A_Possum]

Domestic Questions Remain

The biggest unanswered question about President Bush's reelection campaign has been whether he has a second-term economic and domestic agenda to match his commitment to fighting terrorists. He began to provide the answers here Thursday night with an acceptance speech long on ambitions but far shorter on the ways or the means to accomplish them...

There were some notable omissions in the president's speech. Nowhere did he confront directly what he has heard along the campaign trail in battleground states such as Ohio and Michigan, which is the loss of jobs during his presidency and uneven economic recovery that casts a shadow over his hopes for reelection. The next report card on his economic stewardship will come Friday morning with the latest government statistics on employment and both his and the Kerry campaigns are braced for what they show.

Bush offered many proposals for the economy, but before he gains acceptance for them, he may need to regain the confidence of voters who give him negative ratings for what he has done in his first term. Bush said, "Because we acted, our economy is growing again and creating jobs and nothing will hold us back." But public opinion polls show that a solid majority of voters reject that argument and see an economy far more troubled.

Bush also did not confront the enormous fiscal problem that has been created during his presidency, an explosion of the deficit brought about by recession, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the massive tax cuts he pushed and promoted even as he dramatically boosted spending on defense and homeland security. Bush's desire to reform Social Security collides with his call to make permanent his tax cuts, and outside budget experts say it is unrealistic to expect to do both without further enlarging the deficit.

[napi21]

1. Good article. Proved shrub is just saying TRUST ME!

He obviously can't run on his record so he's distorting it, and saing trust me to do better!

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Trust me?

I think it was Russert tonight that said the whole message of the campaign was "Vote for George Bush or you'll die".

[Dogmudgeon]

2. It was a very small speech

He had a few good lines, but it was generally a rambling, low-octane three-cylinder puffer of a speech.

A small speech delivered by a small man.

Lots of platitudes. Frequent invocation of NineEleven. Every opportunity to take the high road was passed up. A couple of "zingers" about "My Opponent" (sic). Almost an hour long -- and hypnotically boring after a while.

Bush has the capability to be a good speaker. But he has never actually used it.

I was a little surprised. I thought Karen and Karl could do a better job than they did. A few gems were found amidst the gravel, but altogether an 18%-gray piece of cardstock of a speech, a fluff of cotton candy made from some edible polymer with saccharine added of a speech, a heady fortified wine re-diluted with municipal water of a speech.

His buzz phrase: "Nothing will hold us back."

And if he's returned to the Oval Office, Nothing is exactly what we will get.

--bkl

[BurtWorm]

4. I don't buy that it was "long on ambition." It was long on wind.

It was even less inspiring than Clinton's catalog of tiny promises in 1996. In fact the subtext of the speech was "more of the same ole shit, folks!"

[fearnobush]

5. What do yall think, 67,000 new jobs is my guess.

"Because we acted, our economy is growing again and creating jobs and nothing will hold us back." Bu$h tonight.

[Journeyman]

6. I think maybe they should start a national lottery. . .

and each of us can put in a dollar and take a guess on the number of new jobs that month. The winner takes the pot but has to use it as seed money to start a new business, a business he can only staff with the unemployed, one where he's forbidden to outsource no matter how successful he becomes.

I grant it's an idiotic idea but no less so than tax cuts for the rich that'll somehow 'trickle down.'