UPDATE: Yup. I liked the domestic part, too, but otherwise I agree with Jules Crittenden wholeheartedly.
Surfing around, I see the conservative blogosphere thinks Webb's response was a disaster. I thought he came off well, even if I disagree with him utterly. Slightly stiff? Well, ok --it's hard to loosen up without an audience to respond to --that's the main difference between Bush's stiff "surge" speech and last night's confident Bush --people to talk to. And snarking on a middle-aged man's hair is cheap. He looked fine. He seemed manly, which isn't a quality I associate with the Dems' usual suspects.
Webb's was certainly the best "response" speech I've ever seen, even if glittering in its generalities. Though I stand by my story that the response is by its very nature unpatriotic. And it was galling in the extreme to have him talk as if opposition to the Iraq war was the policy of the Democratic Party. Might have been his policy, but his party voted for the war. Moreover, who the heck cares at this point? The shoulda wouldas are a matter for historians; decent people should be thinking about what's right to do now.
Anyway, it was Bush's night. I think it's good for us to see the Prez entering and exiting --with all the shaking of hands and banter with his political foes; some were sickened, but I appreciated his gracious words to Nancy Pelosi on the opening --and thought she was gracious in her reaction, too. Good to see.
UPDATE 2: Michael Novak on SOTU:
Most of the comments on television in the hour after the speech, I judged, failed to give the address the solid credit it deserved. Bush did not speak like a defeated man, nor even like an unpopular man, and certainly not like an intimidated man — but like a man strangely confident that he was eventually going to be seen to have been clear-sighted and brave, the more so when the winds blew against him. I also liked the geniality and good humor he showed, before, during and after.Yes, the tv remarks I heard seemed to be sticking to the script envisioned prior to the speech (damaged president faces enemy Congress) and not to be a reaction to what actually transpired at all.
