Okay, but square this: Yup the economy is humming. Again, that's how economies work in free markets, they cycle between times of plenty and times of drought. Is Bush responsible for either the highs or the lows? Nope.

Yes, Bush's speech was excellent (from our point of view anyway), and it's time for the do-nothings in Olde Europe to understand that all their speeches don't amount to the force of one Abrams tank. Might does not make right, but neither does being contrary on every point make you brilliant. It just makes you disagreeable without offering viable alternatives.

But, what about our environment? Why is Bush bending over backwards to help polluters? Interestingly, it's not that his policies going forward were changed (we already knew he intended to give polluters a break), but now he's killing the investigations into those already tagged for penalty. Meaning those that were in violation of earlier laws, will now be judged under the rules as written. The inverse of that would be akin to executing someone for an act that wasn't a crime at the time the person committed it. Lovely policy.