Watching CNN-Intl. – "Bush Speech – The World Reacts" – this 30 minutes before the speech starts – weird.
8:40pm – blogtime

Top headline on whitehouse.gov: President Bush Marks Fifth Anniversary of No Child Left Behind
8:46pm

WaPo "preview": Bush to Warn That New Iraq Campaign Could Be Bloody – well – with 700,000+ dead Iraqis and 3 million refugees, wasn’t this bloody enough yet?
9:03pm

Bush on:

GWOT, terror, al-qaida, Sunni insurgence is responsible, situation
in Iraq unacceptable, "where mistakes have been made, responsibility
rests with me" (consequences?), failure not an option, 9/11,

Baghdad is key, not enough troops – too many restrictions for them,
Iraqis will deploy in Baghdad, 9 areas, more than 20,000 additional
troops, imbedded with Iraq, mission: help Iraqi troops, difference:
clear and HOLD insteead of just clear,

green light to fight secterians in their neighborhood (Sadr?), time
to act, Iraq government will act, (lame performance – insecure Bush
look – earnestness not earnest), spend Iraqi money,

embeed US troops – 1 US brigade for each Iraqi divisions,  al-Qaeda
is in Anbar, wants Islamic "empire", 4,000 additional US troops to
Anbar, Iran provides weapons to Insurgents (any proof?), additional
Carrier Strike Group, diplomacy with Saudi and Egypt against Iran, Rice
to go to ME,

idiology struggle, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories,
bloody and violent year ahead, Iraq democracy will not be perfect,

consulted with Congress (?), withdrawl would increase need to stay,
will adjust to circumstances, Sen. (Ind., Israel) Lieberman adviced,
dangerous times, "advance of freedom calling of our time", "ensure our
liberty", "sacrifise and resolve", "defide pessimists", "course for new
century" – end speech.

20 min speech form WH library – first impression – LAME
(9:25pm)

Dem response speech (Sen. Durbin):
Bush was wrong, is wrong,
acting against Generals, Iraqis should take over – US should leave,
redeployment will force Iraqis to act
(9:30pm)

CNN has sound, but no pictures, of protests at WH

Obama on: Bush: "no strategy", no military solution, phased
redeployment, setting benchmarks for Iraqis, secure Iraqi borders,
talking about Bush sending 15,000 or 20,000 more troops when Bush just
talked of 25,000+ – (why?)
(9:40pm)
Edwards (D): huge mistake, only political solution, should talk with Iran
Graham (R): Iran would be winner,  support Bush, Gen. Petraeus will do good
McCain
(R): excellent speech, new strategy good (what strategy?), no guarantee
for success, war is winnable, going to be tough, increase in casualties
likely, Petraeus + Lieberman good, …
Feinstein (D): Escalation, disappointed by speech, Iraq has never known democracy (wrong)
Warner
(R): speech based on advise, Bush will brief us, objective analysis
needed after briefing, imploding of Iraq would be desaster

CNN: One more comment from each, we have only limited time today, we’ll be right back, ADVERTISMENT!!!

10 second statements:
Graham: Petraeus will ask Congress for more – give it to him
Feinstein: Iraqis have to take over – US out, Israel-Palestine
Warner: biggest challenge since 29 years
Edwards: we don’t know what’s going to happen
(10:03pm)

Speech text via NYT
Whitehouse powerpoint via WaPo