Jonah, a question for you–and this is really and truly a question, not an argument-in-the-guise-of-a-question: To what extent do you undestand Bush to have said anything new yesterday? To have departed from, or reshaped, the traditional American stance in foreign policy, which is, roughly, that we’ll defend ourselves and our allies but evangelize only by example? And to what extent do you understand him to have been recommiting the country to that traditional view?

P.S. Sorry if I sounded pompous in citing the objections to the speech of WFB, Peggy, and myself. What I meant was not that the three of us represent some sort of Grand Council of Rhetoricians, but that if the three of us found the inaugural address grating, lots of others are very likely to have done so as well–and that if a president grates on his own supporters, something in his rhetoric is likely awry.