A sidebar to this post is that in a later conversation with Dawn, I ask her what would've been different in her life if Gore had become president in 2000. She says 'I would get to pay more taxes.' How does one reason with such a person?

Hey! You left out my support for any and all ballot box stuffing initiatives.

Again, I do appreciate the honesty.

The speech was good, the press conference was not. I'm not in the "Bush is a moron" camp, but come on- as one of Sullivan's letters said, he sounded like a first-year law student who got called on in class and wasn't prepared.

I really didn't feel that way, Stephen, and I'm not a Bush defender no matter what. I think it's good when the right criticizes their own and write about that frequently. I think it makes us better. I don't know, I watched it with Ari and another friend and I think the consensus was he did well. We didn't watch the whole thing so it very well could be that we came in for only his good parts. We only watched the first couple of questions but I thought he handled them very well and the press came off looking like the jerks they are. I think he did poorly on Tim Russert and had I not watched it a week or so after everyone else, would've written that at the time.

Bush was brilliant in that press conference because he accomplished exactly what he wanted to accomplish.

He demonstrated that:

1. He has the determination and courage to see the fight against terrorism to the end.

2. He and Americans are on one side of the fence and the media and terrorists are on the other side.