WHAT'S WORTH CONSERVING AFTER 70 YEARS OF DEMOCRATIC POWER?:

A Conservative President?: It amounted to a thoroughgoing exaltation of the state. (Peter Robinson, 1/20/05, National Review)

Aw, gee. He’s our guy, I like him, and his performance since 9/11 has proven brave, steadfast, and completely admirable. But this speech? It was well-written — in places actually beautiful — and well-delivered. (I dissent from Jonah Goldberg and others who fault Bush for his delivery on the ground that they’re forgetting to multiply his score by the degree of difficulty. Just try standing outdoors, in freezing weather, using a sound system that echoes, and then delivering a speech to an audience that consists of more or less the entire planet. Denny Hastert couldn’t even administer the oath of office to the vice president without misspeaking. Bush delivered his entire text without a flaw.) But the speech was in almost no way that of a conservative.

Of course, a "conservative" speech would have vowed to maintain the tyrannous regimes in the Middle East, the New Deal/Great society as is, and the legacy of the Warren Court. But that's the speech John Kerry would have given--those are the positions of the Democrats. W is a revolutionary.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2005 6:56 PM