Hiding behind “the troops”

Here are a couple of must read posts by Billmon on the Bush speech in front of a captive military audience last night:

Last night, by contrast, seemed about as enjoyable as a root canal for all parties concerned. When the only way you can get a hand from a handpicked military audience is by having a ringer in the audience start clapping [AMERICAblog on the ringer], you know you're bombing (so to speak.) The problem, I guess, is that while Bush was using the troops as a visual backdrop, politically speaking he was trying to hide behind them. And it showed.

And here, a possible subtle change in Bush administration talking points which was really the only interesting aspect in an otherwise drearily repetitive performance.