President Obama gave a short prime time speech this evening to mark the end of combat operations in Iraq. What remains are 50,000 troops to provide support, training and backup. Seems an artificial distinction to me, as the “advisors” who died in Viet Nam in 1962 were just as dead as the combat troops in 1969, but I’m hardly an expert on the subject.

You do have to give the president’s team props for using the Internet. Instead of a dead piece of text going live on the White House web site, the speech streamed live, followed by a streaming Q&A session where flacks cherry picked questions that people submitted and answered live. This gave them a chance to immediately spin anything that the President failed to sell.

The quotes from the speech that appear below were taken from the text posted by NPR.

The president said the obligatory things about the troops. But they came across that way, as obligatory remarks. The president may have meant them, but the skill and the soaring rhetoric he has proven in the past he can master was missing. If there ever was a time to break out those skills and the passion that animated them, this was it. But they were missing in action.

A little more animation for the next couple of paragraphs. “Look! I kept a campaign promise!” (Please quit attacking me from the left.) Then an outline of what the remaining 50,000 troops will be doing. “See! They aren’t combat troops! Really!” (Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!)

It almost sounded like the President was going to say something nice about W, but it was actually a set up for what came later:

As we do, I am mindful that the Iraq War has been a contentious issue at home. Here, too, it’s time to turn the page. This afternoon, I spoke to former President George W. Bush. It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security. As I have said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hope for Iraq’s future.

This particular bit of fence straddling is important. It almost looks as if Obama is saying something nice about Bush, but the reminder that Bush started the war and that Obama opposed it is a setup for what comes a bit later. He’s being sly again, like when he scratches with his middle finger.

Lots of stuff about how Afghanistan is the Good War, and  how we can be a good influence abroad. Then he slips in the knife:

That effort must begin within our own borders. Throughout our history, America has been willing to bear the burden of promoting liberty and human dignity overseas, understanding its link to our own liberty and security. But we have also understood that our nation’s strength and influence abroad must be firmly anchored in our prosperity at home. And the bedrock of that prosperity must be a growing middle class.

Unfortunately, over the last decade, we have not done what is necessary to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity. We have spent a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits. For too long, we have put off tough decisions on everything from our manufacturing base to our energy policy to education reform. As a result, too many middle class families find themselves working harder for less, while our nation’s long-term competitiveness is put at risk.

You KNOW it had to be in there somewhere. “Blame Bush” in disguise. And since Obama is unwilling to blame Bush for anything good that may have come from the war in Iraq, blaming Bush and his war for the economic mess is all he could managed tonight in one short speech. But just in case anyone missed the point, he spells it out:

Our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work. To strengthen our middle class, we must give all our children the education they deserve, and all our workers the skills that they need to compete in a global economy. We must jumpstart industries that create jobs, and end our dependence on foreign oil. We must unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines, and nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs. This will be difficult. But in the days to come, it must be our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president.

The assertion that the economy is in trouble because of the money spent in Iraq and now that we’re out we can spend that money someplace else has three major problems:

• According to the Congressional Budget Office the stimulus bill cost more than all 8 years of Iraq combined, so there is an implicit lie in the assertion.
• Innovation is stifled in part because few are willing to risk money in an environment where the costs that government will impose are growing and uncertain. The only certainty seems to be that next week or next month will bring another regulation that makes life more difficult for most businesses.
• We don’t have the money. We’re in debt. Ignoring paying off the debt for the moment, just the deficit (the amount we fall further behind) increases each year.

Obama wrapped up with more nice words about the troops, but he mailed it in. And hidden among the nice words about the troops was this little road apple:

In an age without surrender ceremonies, we must earn victory through the success of our partners and the strength of our own nation.

Yup. Second to the last paragraph the word “victory” finally appears. But is he claiming victory for our troops? No, instead Obama says that victory is defined by how much people like us, and how strong we are. How strong we are sounds good until you realize that it’s a callback to his “Blame Bush” moment when he says “we have also understood that our nation’s strength and influence abroad must be firmly anchored in our prosperity at home.”

All in all, nothing he couldn’t have said while talking to soldiers at Fort Bliss this afternoon. I guess the teleprompter he leaves behind in the Oval Office got lonely and needed some attention.

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