When Will We Get A Public Speaker?

President Bush is inarticulate. We all know it, and many of us take relish in the embarassment that it often causes the president and his supporters. However, often times, criticism of Bush's speaking ability overshadows the political issues that really matter, often because making fun of the president's unintelligible blabber is easier than criticizing his policies. In reality, it's the softest shot Democrats can take at Bush when they're in the company of people whose political opinions are unknown. Nevertheless, enough is enough. The president needs to learn how to speak.

Bush's inability to communicate his ideas is not only embarassing, it's dangerous. Remember back in 2000 when we were told that then Governor Bush was a moderate who brought opposing sides together? Where is that man now? Perhaps because he has a much more diverse constituency and government to control, he is not as comfortable speaking his opinions, however, the result has been terrible. As a friend of mine was telling me the other day, because Bush has trouble expressing complex policies or positions in words, he has reverted to more partisan positions and more extreme language to endorse them.

The war in Iraq is the best example. He is incapable of coming out and telling the public about the real situation of the war, and therefore uses exhausted slogans that only antagonize people who feel that the war is going badly. "You're with us or against us", "The terrorists are growing weak", "We believe in freedom and they don't". Sure, these words may be true in theory, but they don't answer the specific questions that people want to know.

It's his second term. He's not dumb. It's time for the president to throw away the notes and just talk like a normal person. Whatever he has to say can't possibly sound worse than the status quo. If he wants to go down in history as a war leader than he should start acting like one.