Well, I wasn’t expecting to find Bush inspiring, and I’m not. I am curious however, about what might be appealing to other people about him.

You know, it's interesting how much Bush is having to contest Kerry's claim that he's got conservative values. No one thinks Kerry is conservative in political terms. But the deeper problem may be that people are waking up to see that Bush is not, either. NEOconservative, perhaps, but not conservative in the terms that the Republican party used to hold dear (cf. Keillor again).

Now he's making all these claims about his efforts on terrorism, but none of them have much evidence behind them. Oh, except for this: "we're striking out abroad so we don't have to face them here" .... which only works IF you believe Iraq was tied to Al Qaeda, which clearly many Americans still do. So much of what HAS been accomplished, can be tied to other people's initiative. Argh.

But these are nuanced ways of contesting what he's saying. I wonder how many people will bother?

"We have led, many have joined, and America and the world are safer." NOT.

"We must and we will confront threats to America before it's too late." We have NOT.

He is once again conflating September 11 and the war in Iraq. Putting these issues side by side he allows people to believe he's doing something that is helping, when in fact it's making things worse. Sigh.

"When America gives its word, America must keep its word." So what does it mean when we become torturers? Is that keeping our word?

Speaking directly to our men and women in service -- "you're making America safer... Because of you the world is more just and will be more peaceful. We owe you our thanks and we owe you something more. We will give you all the resources, all the tools and all the support for victory." NOT. That's not at all what Bush's administration has done.

"There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat" -- except maybe how they got there in the first place? And under what misleading circumstances?

I keep wanting to have people go back and read the sources I noted earlier that directly contradict such claims. But will they? I hope so.