Tripe:

Peggy Noonan writes about Bush's State of the Union address. Some excerpts: (emphasis added)

• It was the speech of a practical idealist ...
  
  
• In the first, domestic part of the speech he was serious and contained, but in the second part of the speech, on Iraq, there was a shift. His voice seemed lower and there seemed a kind of full head-heart engagement in his grave but optimistic message. For a moment I though of earnest Clark Kent moving, at the moment of maximum danger, to shed his suit, tear open his shirt and reveal the big "S" on his chest.
  
  
• In a pre-speech meeting with reporters on Tuesday, a high administration official with intimate knowledge of the president's thinking said that the president did not intend for the speech to be the last word on Iraq.
  
  
• He added to the case against Iraq in a way that seemed compelling ...
  
  
• The new information Mr. Bush offered seemed both believable and incomplete.
  
  
• Mr. Bush's language was interesting. It was Elevated Bushian ...
  
  
• I felt at the end of the speech not roused but moved, and it took me a while to figure out why. It was gratitude.    This, truly, is a good man. And that is a rare thing.
  
  
• There is a profound authenticity to him, and a fearlessness too. ... More and more this presidency is feeling like a gift.

posted by Quiddity at 1/30/2003 01:08:00 PM