Last Night: I did watch the president speak, in the end. (I had debated.) What's the point anymore? Yes, I'm with the program. It's war, after all, and not one we declared. You want to spend a further $87 bil on this? Fine. (But I do wish we could trim some budget fat to pay for it.) Honestly, I'm the president's man. I was all about nation building when Bush was hinting that he was an almost-but-not-quite neo-isolationist, so he doesn't need to ride herd on me.

And then I see him speak. Granted, he improves as he speaks, and the last 5 minutes of the speech sounded good. But when he steps up to the plate with that deer-in-the-headlights look, I don't feel good. When I hear each speech. In exactly the same. Cadence as the last. I begin to wonder. If the speeches are written. In Weekly Reader sentences. For the public. Or him. Can't we trade Bush for Blair -- maybe just for the season, then waive him? It sure seems like the Brits are peeved at him anyway for sexing up the government. Or something. Whattya say, Mum -- er, Your Highness? Bush, and a player to be named later, for the Blair with a pair . . .