The Partisan Response

I have vague memories of the opposition speeches going back to around the mid-90s, and while they were all fairly snooze-inducing, I have to say that the Reid-Pelosi duet might have been the worst public speech I have ever heard. It's not the Democrats' fault that they had to prepare the "response" before ever seeing or hearing the text of Bush's speech, but it is their fault that A) they chose as their public advocates two of the most charmless people ever to appear on television, and B) they asked them to recite two of the worst speeches ever written.

Harry Reid: "We don't want to gamble with Social Security. And I'm a senator representing Las Vegas." Who exactly thought that would be cute or otherwise a good idea? I'd be willing to place a discrete wager on Reid not surviving through his next election; the moment he was named as minority leader the Republicans were undoubtedly licking their chops at the prospect of claiming another scalp, at least after they got over their initial confusion and disbelief over the Democrats appointing another vulnerable red-state senator as their party leader.

And Pelosi? If week-old cadavers have faces that are less warm, it's not by a huge margin. Criticizing someone's appearance is almost always a bit of a low blow, but not, I think, when she made the conscious decision to botox her visage into a pagan death masque.

Pretty much par for the course with the Democrats: Bush gives a speech that was mediocre even by his own standards and the Democrats do something to make him look like fucking Cicero in contrast.