I didn't get to hear the speech last night, as I was working. I'm sure I'll get to hear excerpts in the coming days. And I don't care what they call the operation, either, as long as it is carried out successfully. For me, it is action that matters... not words. I love to read a great speech, and to hear one; but that's an aesthetic appreciation. I too decry the deterioration of our newspapers and communicators; I crave complex thoughts and in-depth analysis (which I find here).

To be honest, I think any of our past several Presidents would have done just fine with this crisis. They all had their various strengths and weaknesses. Well, almost all: Reagan would have made me nervous, both because of the brain function issues and the fact that I always thought he was TOO smooth and TOO charismatic. But he also had some capable people behind-the-scenes... and I was in high school, anyway, so what did I know?

To lead a country in time of war is a great challenge, but to be a great president in peacetime is perhaps a more difficult and underappreciated challenge. We'll never know what kind of peacetime president Bush Jr. will make, just as we will never know how Clinton or Gore would have fared with these challenges. I liked Clinton, in spite of his philandering; I still admire his intellect. He would have been better at the speech-making, no question; but he would have had his own struggles in trying to unify the nation.

When the dust settles and we are able to go back to our ordinary domestic issues I will be back here making fun of Dubya and complaining about his domestic policies. But for now, I am willing to grant him the benefit of the doubt and to give my support to his administration. There is always room for questioning, for gadflies, for dissenters... but this is not a time for pettiness.