SOTU Past, Present, and Evermore

Here's a relatively small thing that really grates on my about Bush's delivery of prepared speeches.

• Eyes on the left Teleprompter, head begins to turn to the center TelePrompter.


• Eyes snap to the center TelePrompter, head begins to turn to the right Teleprompter.


• Eyes snap to the right Teleprompter, head begins to turn to center Teleprompter.

Repeat ad lib (sometimes move eyes before head, or have the eye-move to head-move time gap stretch eerily long, which looks like physical dyslexia).

That's one reason I don't like to watch the guy. When giving speeches he looks positively Animatronic.

As for the substance, I'm sure it's about as balanced, sober, and accurate as his SOTU from 2003. Take the time to read it again, especially the parts about Iraq. It's like a used car salesman's schpiel.

Try this with that 2003 speech: print it out and, with a highlighter, mark all the places where he talks about or hints darkly about Iraqi WMD Them mark all the places he talks about Iraqi democracy or elections with another color highlighter. You may as well use a dried up highlighter for the latter, because he is silent on it. If you want to highlight "freedom" as relating to Iraq, that'll take you a tiny little bit more.

You better pick your favorite color for the WMD highlighting because you'll be seeing a whole lot of that color. Much like the CIA has.