I still haven't had a chance to take the president's speech line-by-line — of course the sound bites indicate a helpful repetition of the same principles the Bush administration has retained for over a year, so I'm satisfied. Should you be unfamiliar with what makes a good policy announcement, watching the reaction of Democrats the morning after is a helpful metric: if they're left to quibble over details and plead for the line items they wanted, the speech succeeded. No longer a loyal opposition, the Democrats are somewhere between backbencher contrarians and a peanut gallery; that is, either uncooperative or irrelevant. But their behavior speaks volumes.

New Jersey Senator John Corzine was interviewed by Fox's E.D. Hill this morning; he didn't care for the president's speech. Why? Mostly because Bush failed to reach out to foreign leaders, firmly coupled to Saddam's gravy train, who opposed the Iraqi dictator's ouster. Presidential candidate John Kerry offered the same complaints, as if the scores of nations already involved — referred to by the Massachusetts senator as a "fraudulent coalition," not exactly the wisest salutation to international relations — weren't enough. Overall, little more than political hunts and pecks from across the aisle — and if they'd smelled blood, Corzine and Kerry would be speaking differently.