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 and speech writers are already sending out their resumes and wondering when to jump ship.
Compounding a wretched evening for the President was a savage answer on behalf of the Democratic party by the new senator from Virginia, James Webb. His nine-minute speech was the most effective I have seen in 30 years of listening to these formal rebuttals.
This former Republican, who served as Reagan's secretary of the Navy, tossed aside the script handed him by the Democratic leadership and gave a precis of the populist stump speech that carried him to a razor-thin victory last November. It was in the idiom of the platform of the Populist Party, written by Ignatius Donnelly in 1882: "The fruits of the toil of millions are badly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few... from the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes - tramps and millionaires."
After a caustic description of today's economy, where the top Wall Street players haul home unimaginable billions while the
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| Webb’s rebuttal speech was the most effective that I have seen in 30 years |
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middle class founders into ruin, Webb turned to the war in Iraq.
Briskly evoking his father's wartime sacrifices, his own service in Vietnam, and his son's present tour as a marine in Iraq, Webb said implacably what most Democrats shirk: that the war had always been a terrible mistake, that Bush had launched it recklessly and gravely damaged America; that the only sane option was regional diplomacy and prompt withdrawal.
Webb has that anger common to so many Vietnam vets. But whereas with John McCain it's ill-contained enough to be downright scary, with Webb it's under control, but still strong enough to create a force-field that holds people's attention.
I have difficulty imagining Obama or Clinton or Edwards really gripping America's imagination in the next political phase. On last night's evidence, Webb could do it. 
FIRST POSTED JANUARY 24, 2007
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