1) So what’s going to happen tonight?

The only thing we can really know for sure is that Peggy Noonan will hate the speech. Unless of course she wrote it. Then she’ll like it. Except for the delivery.

2) Surely we know more about what’s to come than that.

Sadly, we do. The White House has released a document that outlines the initiatives that the President will speak on tonight. It’s a laundry list of boring stuff. Perhaps you’ve been dying to know what the administration will do about malaria. Well, you’re suffering is over – the President’s malaria plan of action will at last be unveiled. Or maybe you’ve been feeling it’s important that we initiate “Reforms to Spend Tax Dollars Wisely.” If so, your hour has come. All those people insisting that we should spend tax dollars unwisely will finally get their comeuppance this evening.

3) What are the big themes?

The big theme is his “Agenda for Spreading Hope and Opportunity In America.” That's a huge relief. I was worried his agenda was going to offer a plan for spreading despair and deprivation.

4) Whoa! Going a little heavy on the snark there, aren’t you?

Sorry. But sheesh! We’ve got a war effort that the country is abandoning. The more craven elements of the president’s own party want to build a Chinese Wall between the war and themselves to maximize their electoral prospects. We have an enemy that’s talking genocide and making a headlong rush to acquire some nukes so it can get the job done fast. And the president’s going to be talking about malaria. Give me a break.

5) He’s also going to talk about “reauthorizing and strengthening No Child Left Behind.”

Are you trying to get me angry?

6) I ask the questions here. And no, I’m not trying to get you angry. Since you’re so smart, what should the president say?

Back in the days of yore, presidents used to deliver a written State of the Union and forego the pomp and circumstance that we’ve gotten so accustomed to. Someday, some smart president will reinvent the wheel of modern day SOTUs and deliver a brief thematic address and then put a written document with all the eye-glazing mind-numbing details out there for anyone who’s interested.

7) Would anyone be interested?

No. Or I guess the same people would be interested in that who are interested in what the president’s going to say about malaria tonight. The point is the president could deliver a powerful speech on a magnificent stage, instead of using the same great forum to recite a dreary laundry list. Sadly, the latter is currently the custom.

8) What would you like to hear from the president tonight?

Honesty. I would like to hear him finally say the words “radical Islam.” I would like him to put the Iraq war in context. I would like to hear him offer a full explanation of why we can’t lose there rather than just stubbornly postulate that as a fact.

9) But everyone knows we can’t lose there.

What? You’re spending too much time in the echo chamber, my friend. Most people think we’ve already lost there and that we should just withdraw. So I guess while he’s at it, the president might explain why we haven’t lost and why the battle is very winnable.

10) Can he do that?

Of course. If Michael Yon can single-handedly do it, theoretically the administration can cobble together enough brain power to make it happen.

11) Gosh. That’s getting dangerously close to flirting with the “Bush is dumb” meme.

I don’t see it that way. And I don’t think that’s the case. But the President is acting a lot like Clinton did after the ’94 elections. He’s moping around, trying to somehow convince people that he’s still relevant.

12) Is he?

Of course. He’s the President of the United States. He’s the Commander in Chief of the most powerful military the world has ever seen. We can’t go the next 24 months without leadership.

13) Is he up to it?

Yes. I think he’s reached a point, however, where he’s convinced he can’t be popular in his own time but that he will inevitably be vindicated by history. He’s using that as a jumping off point to conclude that public opinion in his own time doesn’t matter. He’s sorely mistaken on that count. If he doesn’t rally the people, or at the very least his own party, he won’t be able to salvage the wider war effort. If the surge succeeds but the wider war against radical Islam is abandoned, the surge’s success will be a very small victory.

14) Maybe he’ll surprise us.

Maybe. I was expecting a rally around the flag stem-winder, so maybe this internet release is just a way of getting the boring stuff out of the way. But I’m worried.

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