Seeker,
No Bush was Bush last night. You just bought into the "con" that Bush was weak. His handlers have always made him look "clumsy". The lame street press such as "Newsweak's" (note the "a") Howard Fineman and "PMSNBC's" Chris Mathews get caught up in it all and of course there is the spin coming out of the democratic party from "little Dicky" Gephart and the senator from South Dakota. With all of that in the air one sees and buys into the con about Bush being a weak and ineffective leader and of course he is toooo "conservative".
You must remember Ronald Regan. Same thing with him too. Now they make the guy out as one of the best all round presidents ever who saved the world from communism - which we know isn't quite true.
Quite frankly I found his speech similar to other state of the union addresses using the same old techniques Clinton and Regan used. Personally I think the speech Bush gave at the Chruch a week ago was 10 times better. He read from his papers rather than his telaprompter at that event. I find he delievers a "read" speech much better than a telaprompter speech.
The key about last nights speech - Bush bought some time. Period.
hawk