Also particularly impressive was his talk about judicial tyrants:  “If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process.”  And this wasn’t just a hollow threat; he has Judge Pickering’s recess appointment to prove it.

Excellent as the speech was, there were, as usual, sections that could have been left out.  Maybe ridding the world of steroid-addicted athletes ranks high on the White House’s to-do list, but it’s nowhere near mine.  And as for the so-called “Re-Entry Initiative,” which was designed, one assumes, so that the President can capture the needed vote of the ex-convict, I’d be much more inclined to support a Re-Entry Initiative that involved federal dollars re-entering the pockets of tax-payers.

The best result of the speech was that it left the New York Times spinning with rage.  On the front page Wednesday the Times snarled, “Mr. Bush put forth no major new foreign policy or domestic initiatives in an address that was as much about political drama as substance and that served as the president’s grandest stage until his party’s nominating convention in New York in September.”

It was on the editorial page that they could really let loose.  First they said that the only reason Bush is so determined to keep taxes low is that his “wealthy donors…expect that he will.”  Though, admittedly, I’m no economist, it seems that if rich people want to cut taxes, and rich people are the ones doing the business, perhaps the White House should take that as a sign that cutting taxes promotes the growth of industry.  Why, pray tell, would businessmen favor policies that hurt business?

Next, they said that, despite the dozens of countries that have supported the war since the beginning, we still have a foreign policy of “stubborn unilateralism,” with no “real international backing…” 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the LA Times was also furious.  “[T]he less a listener let the facts get in the way,” they wrote, “the more effective the speech became…Bush offered himself as the president who slays terrorism, kills taxes, and saves traditional values.  While the facts of the matter may get in the way, it’s a smart strategy for reelection.”

It’s always the same with these people.

In other political news, John Kerry won the Iowa Caucuses.  Howard Dean pulled a pitiful 18%, which makes New Hampshire essential.  He doesn’t have to worry about Joe Lieberman, the only half-decent man in the race, but Wes Clark and Kerry pose a grave threat to his candidacy.  If Dean wins the nomination John Edwards could luck-out and take second place again, but that’s unlikely.  He, like Clark, will be strongest in the south.

I maintain that the most egregious of Dean’s gaffes was to say that he got into politics because of Jimmy Wear-A-Sweater Carter, but he hasn’t made it easy to choose.  In dealing with Osama bin Laden, Dean said recently, “we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.”  After being scolded by his staff no doubt, he then told the Associated Press that he favored the death penalty for bin Laden, so long as we complied with “the rule of law.” 

This, and all other issues aside, if George W. Bush can speak as articulately as he did on Tuesday night, no Democrat—including Howard the Coward—has a chance.