Did Bush Skip Live Speech,sub an early prerecord?

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 11, 2007 · 6:13 PM PST

2007/01/11 · 18:13

Something odd about last night's 9PM speech. At the appointed time, the networks were gabbing and speculating as per usual and suddenly jumped into the speech without any panning,any intro into the room...just a head and shoulders closeup of Bush and stayed there until the end which broke away abruptly.

Some odd things...the first few seconds had no sound, a minute or two in, there was a skip and flicker as if the satellite link was shakey.

even odder IMHO, was the flat almost monotone reading as if the piece was not very interesting and not really needing any flourishes.

Even more striking was the feel of the speech. It seemed as though it was a retake, a version of which Bush practiced, but not first or last, maybe the cleanest, least garbled version he had recorded as a practice reading.

I am thinking, with the lack of an intro, and the lack of a salutation or finish, that this presentation was a usable reading that had done earlier, and was a fillin in case the President wasn't able to make a
"live" reading.

The more I think about it, the more certain things jump out. There
were a number of disconnected sentences and paragraphs dealing with the details of the escalation, the sorts of things supposed to happen, but they were not in any particular order.I was thinking they were sort of action items, but had not been prioritized. In a later version,there would be a rearrangement and really weak or ineffective items would be dropped and stuff that seemed to be strong accented. That seemed to be missing...

The curious thing was "change in strategy" was never really explained or spelled out or even comprehensively described. Instead, various tactics were pulled out and touted but the enemy was the same old boogeyman of 4 years ago, the sort of real political work to strengthen an independent Iraq got no shrift at all, and Saddam's execution was not mentioned at all! that should have rated some mention or at least some bragging!.

So in a deconstruction of the speech or a forensic close reading, I posit that Bush wimped out or had the shakes or was nervous enough to not want to risk reading in a stressed and charged unfavorable environment.

The zero mention of SHussein's execution tells me this was recorded before December 27th.

And the flatness and slightly bored and unemotional tone says it was a practice run, in the middle of several and was selected to be the best
"take" in case he wanted to use it instead of live, which he did avoid doing. I felt asa coherent presentation it was rambling and weak, and GWB overall is really on the defensive and possibly couldn't answer the starting bell of his highly touted and promoted "strategic shift (not!) "speech.

I believe his manners and readiness at Wednesday night's start of the speech forced the handlers to run an early version where the reading was crisper than a nervous President's live bomb he was about to deliver.

Any confirmation or thoughts?

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

Make YOUR voice heard!

Comments are closed on this story.