This guy catches my vibe:

I have to agree with your assessment that the audience seemed “flatter” than most of Bush’s military audiences usually are (and I was watching on Fox News). There was a thunderous ovation when he was introduced, but nothing equal to that during or after the speech. I guess it’s pretty common knowledge that Bush is much better when he’s “speaking” as opposed to “reading” which he was clearly doing during this speech. When he says something especially poignant (like mentioning Cpl. Starr’s letter), I keep expecting him to stop reading for a minute, look out into the audience and at the cameras, address the lefty wackos and say something like, “are you getting this? Do you understand the magnitude of what’s going on here? Are you really willing to insult this Cpl.’s life and death for your cheap little partisan bickering?” Something to that effect would just make a world of difference to people who don’t watch these speeches all the time.