My first concern when hearing about Burma and then listening to the bulk of the speech is that it was a wee bit of a missed opportunity. As I talk to people I’m hearing similar things. The most stinging line I’ve heard? “It reads like it was written by a State Department desk officer.”

I can understand some of the reasons the president might not want to press Iran in front of the U.N. But I can also see the need for setting sound groundwork — as one colleague put it in conversation this afternoon: “with that genocidal midget at the UN, he spoke about mosquitoes and malaria? teachers and textbooks? … What of world’s/UN’s responsibility to help with Iraq?”

Colleague added: “His days are numbered and every speech counts.”