4:14PM Reporters reportedly chuckled when they were told that the White House wouldn’t make war decisions based on “consistency or precedent.”
Me, I started drinking.
Actually, that’s not true — I waited nearly minutes after taking of Number One Son’s carpool.
4:18PM Shep Smith on Fox just finished savaging the Administration. That’s like having your Border Collie turn on you. This isn’t going to be pretty.
4:21PM “I’m not afraid of planes!” Gaddafi is shouting from the rooftops. Good thing, too — since he’ll probably need to board one for Monaco if he wants to live.
4:24PM Still on Fox. Reagan — what a cowboy. Talking to Congress before launching a war against a tiny country where we have no vital interests. Such nerve.
4:25PM Just switched to CNN. John King is a welcome relief from all that bombast on Fox. And also from charisma.
4:29PM David Gergen is telling us we’re going to be involved for a long time no matter what happens.
Thanks goodness we’re having this debate now, more than a week after initiating hostilities.
4:32PM I’m confused, and it isn’t just the very large vodka-rocks I’m enjoying seconds of.
It’s a major address, but it’s not in primetime for most of the nation. It’s a war, but the President isn’t addressing Congress. It looks like a press conference, where Obama might announce a worthwhile American initiative. What’s the context here?
4:32PM Gravitas is lacking. This is a war speech, but his speech is fast and his voice is lacking its usual resonance. Message: This is not all that important.
4:33PM OK, so a general war update. Great troops — I love this stuff.
4:33PM We have a unique role! Which we’re turning over to a Canadian general!
4:34PM “Libya sits directly between Tunisia and Egypt.” It is also quite flat. And often hot.
4:35PM “Last month, Gaddafi’s grip of fear seemed to weaken — but I did nothing for a couple weeks. But it’s vital now, I promise you.”
I might have done some paraphrasing.
4:35PM “Gaddafi had lost confidence and legitimacy.” And he had them… when?
4:36PM Now we’re at the laundry list of Gaddafi atrocities — and they are atrocities. You can’t make light of that.
4:37PM Also, Obama has found his groove. But still, this is the kind of thing presidents usually say from behind the Resolute desk or in front of Congress. It’s just jarring in its wrongness.
4:38PM We faced a choice: I was going to quote something here, but I still haven’t heard the choice.
4:39PM Benghazi, a city the size of Charlotte. Props to my homies in the SC! That was just a weird line.
4:40PM “We have stopped Gaddafi’s deadly advance.” Actually, the rebels have made nice advances today, all thanks to our No Fly Zone, and direct attacks on ground targets. To mention that would be bragging?
4:41PM In just one month we’ve done everything but get permission and money from your elected representatives.
Obama bragging about diplomatic and military speed. Dare we call it… a rush to war?
4:42PM NATO has taken command. And who has effective command of NATO? This is like a naked Ron Jeremy grabbing a pine needle and calling it a fig leaf.
4:43PM “We have done what we said we will do.” But we still don’t know what that is! No strategy has been announced, no end game, no exit strategy.
By the way, I despise “exit strategies.” That’s just another phrase for “bugging out.” But I do expect to hear one articulated by this President.
4:44PM “Some Americans continue to have questions.” Well, tonight is the first time we’ve had answers from on high, so, well — yeah.
4:45PM “A false choice.” “On the one hand!” My eyes just glazed over as Obama reaches for his oldest, cheapest, most obvious rhetorical trick.
4:46PM We must measure our interests against the need for action? Don’t our interests determine our need for action? I’m very confused.
4:47PM If not helping Libya is a “betrayal of who we are,” then why not Syria and Burma and Timbuktu?
4:48PM Ahh — we’re setting an example for other nasty dictators. Well, Libya’s nasty dictator has been very nicely boxed in by the example set by Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Now then — what example might have convinced Gaddafi he was out of his box? Hmmm…?
4:50PM OK, so the people of Libya asked us for help. This will encourage others to rise up and do likewise. So either our responsibility to protect is unlimited, or we’re encouraging people to rise up and get slaughtered.
That’s not a strategy.
4:50PM I’m pretty well loaded by now, but I seem to have given all this more thought than the administration.
Of course, that’s been true for most of the last three administrations.
4:51PM “Let me close… ”
Let you? Dude, I’ll give you money.
4:52PM “That’s why we’re going after al Qaeda!” And giving them missiles in Libya!
The shallowness of this speech shows a real audacity of hope in the ignorance of the American people.
4:53PM I’m getting paged to appear on PJTV. Click on over for live video drunk remarks!
Because this speech is pretty much over.
(And don’t miss the “Ten missing elements from Obama’s speech.”)
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