The President speech was a very pleasant surprise, a strong effort, especially the foreign policy stuff which actually did put the Iraq war in context. The President in spite of six years in Washington is still trying to work with the Democrats what perseverance. The president also benefited from Senator Webb's supremely lame, divisive and petty response. Senator Webb says we need a new direction but I was not sure if he was talking about the war on terror or the Democratic Party since before the speech he said his comments would be directed at Democratic Party members! There were a lot of recycled lines from his campaign stump. He claimed that a majority of the military was against the war now (source?). He said we shouldn't have a precipitous withdrawal and then he said we need to get out in short order. So what is the Democrats plan again oh ya UN!