Written by: Beck

The introductions of the Bush daughters complete, they've cut to footage of President Bush who will introduce Laura via live remote.

I can't imagine this will be an especially exciting speech, but then, the job of the First Lady's speech isn't to be exciting. She just needs to be genuine and endearing. From what the pundits were saying earlier, Laura Bush is one of the two most popular First Ladies in modern politics, the other one being Barbara Bush, so she shouldn't have too hard a time.

I think Laura is the only person I've heard say Dick Cheney's name without it somehow sounding sinister or creepy. She's also the only one who can say, "George Dubya," without sounding like there's an implied insult behind the nickname. The only problem I have is the strong hint of a Dallas accent (not to be mistaken for other, much less annoying Texas accents).

She definitely looks more comfortable than she did four years ago when she made her first major public speaking appearance ever (if I recall correctly) at the convention itself. Also, unlike her husband, she doesn't look like she's aged in the past four years. Bush looks about 10 years older than he did in 2000.

Update: The issue most important for the future: to fight terror and make our country secure, "So our children can grow up in a more peaceful world."

[Paraphrasing] "Our nation owes its thanks to the young men and women fighting so that we can have a safer future." This certainly beats Kerry's wife's speech wherein she bragged about her "struggle" against racism in South Africa (which seems to have involved going to one protest) and pontificating about how people needed to be more conscious of their responsibility to the environment.

Update: I didn't know Laura Bush's father died of Alzheimer's. He was present at the liberation of one of the Nazi Death Camps. Perhaps Alzheimer's was something of a mercy.

Update: She's making another point which I think hasn't been emphasized enough--the freedom of the women of Afghanistan. They weren't even legally allowed to learn how to read under the Taliban. The Taliban regime was one of the feminist movement's cause celebre's of choice. Strangely, they fell silent when it was a Republican who freed those virtual slaves.

I think I just hit the boredom wall. Laura's voice is a bit too monotonous and her delivery a bit too much like Senator Dole's.

In other news, Bush & Laura met at a BBQ and were married 3 months later. Yeesh.