President Bush's Speech: ABC's Coverage

Well, I now understand one big reason Bush has had a hard time with public opinion the last four years.* A speech is NOT a debate. Having a Democratic senator give a critique and rebuttal before the applause has even died down is NOT being fair and balanced. If you want balanced, get a Democrat and a Republican up to debate the points of the speech after it's over.

In this case, the ABC staff told us what the speech was supposed to be about before Bush was on stage. Then as soon as he finished, they criticized, er, critiqued it, pointing out that the troops were remarkably quiet when Bush entered. Go figure; the troops were quite naturally at attention during Bush's entry. They made a point of noting that the one time Bush was applauded in the middle it was prompted by a White House staffer, and made no comment about the standing ovation the troops gave him at the end. Then Dem. Senator Joseph Biden came on to refute the president's points. Then commentary ended, except on the west coast.

Again, if the Allied media in WWII had acted this way, we would have lost the war. Indeed, if the opposition party (the Republicans in WWII) had acted like the opposition party now, we would have lost the war.

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Full text of speech.

Instapundit roundup of comments.

*Yeah, I've been out of the country for seven years. Until now, I've always read the President's speeches.