Nope, I didn't watch.

I was pouring beer and feeding the jukebox at work during the President's speech, and if I'd been home I would have been watching CSPAN for the Democratic Special Order anyway. I might have made an effort to put it on one of the tav's TVs if it had been a policy speech, but it wasn't. It was a campaign speech, only this time the opponent is the American people. This was GW's attempt to get the people back in line and it can't really be judged by its content, but by its effect. CNN has some early returns (my emphasis)...

(CNN) -- A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of Americans who watched President Bush's Iraq speech Tuesday night showed that 46 percent had a "very positive" reaction to what they heard.

The poll was taken immediately after the speech, and the 323 adults interviewed were 50 percent Republican, 23 percent Democratic and 27 percent independent. The margin of error was plus or minus 6 percentage points.

The sample looks skewed, but it was unavoidable, since they only talked to people who had actually seen the speech, and CNN candidly admits...

"Many Americans did not watch the speech. Those who did were 2-to-1 Republican, so most were arguably already in the president's camp."

Still…

The percentage of those with a "very positive" reaction was down from the 60 percent expressing the same sentiment in a similar poll taken immediately after Bush's State of the Union speech in February.

And we know how well things have gone for Bush since then. It seems that Bush, unable to win over even half of an audience heavily skewed in his favor, has lost another battle in his war against Americans. Give folks credit - they're getting fed up with the facade of platitudes this administration tries to pass off as policy.

I wonder. Can a President preside with approvals in the thirties?