I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it wasn't too bad of a speech. You know, considering who was giving it and all. Well, let me modify that. It was a good speech in terms of it possibly having the effect the White House intended, and that is to halt the free fall of the president's poll numbers. Then again, his numbers have probably gotten about as low as they can get.
Certainly he mushed up the war in Iraq with the War on Terra, as usual, and there was a shameful little bit where he highlighted Nick Berg's murder and a couple of other brutal acts by terrorists, pointing out how "evil" they are, but that's all to be expected.
He did offer some details about what this handover on June 30th will mean, but it struck me as a lot of dreamy fantasy. He kept saying "complete sovereignty" and stuff like that. He made it sound as though 138,000 U.S. troops are going to be hanging around, you know, just to keep an eye on things, and we'll have our biggest embassy anywhere in the world, with several field offices around the country, but they won't be making any decisions or anything. They'll be advising. They won't be rulers, they'll be technical experts.
Overall, it was one of the better speeches I've seen him give. Not in terms of actual substance or any belief that it will really mean anything, but in terms of how it could go over.
One thing though, can somebody PLEASE release a memo about how to pronounce Abu Ghraib? It's pretty ridiculous to have the president stumbling over it, he pronounced it in three distinct ways in the same sentence.
Or how about this conspiracy theory: They purposely have him mispronounce it in order to downplay its significance. To the average Joe Dumbass, it can't be all that important if the president doesn't even know how to say it. One of Rove's little psychology tricks. How about that?
Seriously, though, if this had been something he had been talking about for the past two weeks, as he damn well should have been, he'd know how to say it.
One final note: One of his big applause-getting lines was: "Iraqis can be certain a free Iraq will always have a friend in the United States of America." Big standing O for that one.
Sounds great, but of course it's bullshit. Everybody knows that the United States doesn't have friends, it has interests. Ask Rwanda.
UPDATE :: transcript of the speech
