Bush in Cleveland

Sad pathetic speech.

I'm the Commander-in-Chief; I'm also the educator-in-chief. One of my job is to explain the philosophy behind the decisions that I have made.

More about it here.

It was, even by his standards, an unusually rambling speech, alternately folksy and haranguing, most of it about the virtues of tax cuts and private health care. A half-hour passed—and the cable news channels cut away to an incident at the Oakland airport a couple of times—before he came to the main point, the reason they were carrying the speech live: to articulate his latest views on Iraq.

And the startling thing about these views is that they haven't changed a bit.

Oh yeah, one more thing...

But today, Bush spoke (screamed, really) as if the fighters in Iraq were under the command of Osama Bin Laden. Speaking of the suicide attacks in Iraq, he said, "Al-Qaida is doing most of the spectacular bombing—the same people who attacked us on September 11." Sectarian violence didn't exist in Iraq, he claimed, until it was incited by al-Qaida—"the killers who attacked America."

Remember this? The "Al-Qaida in Iraq isn't even the same group that Bin Laden led.

While in town Bush also had lunch at Slyman's deli. Slyman's makes some badass corned beef, not that I'm really the best person to hear that from, being vegetarian. But as was remarked in my office, apparently the guy that picks lunch can make good decisions, so the Bush administration isn't all bad. Choosing lunch is also a great thing when you're thinking from "the gut".