Sen. Jim Webb fires away

After George Bush’s 45 minute speech last night where it sounded like he was just rattling off some bullet points (was there ever any kind of segue between topics?), Sen. Jim Webb’s speech really knocked me out.

I should disclose here that I was more attentive than usual to the speech because a friend of mine just started working for him. That said, I think I would have noticed anyway. The man looked furious. He had a nice, solid voice that really grabbed you and eased through anything he had to say. No mistaking the fact that he thought the President a liar, a fool and a poor successor to the Presidents that have come before.

That line where he said something like: we went our servicemen off to fight in Europe and Korea and Vietnam and we supported them, but we did so while also fulfilling our responsibility of managing the encounters wisely — man, blew me out of my seat.

Then when he talked about times when the rich got too rich and visionary Presidents came along to address it meaningfully, like FDR. Too much, too much. The Democrats really are ready to fire with all guns, I guess.

It made me wonder, though, do we have a Democrat with FDR’s vision in the rank’s coming forward? Do we have one who’s willing to engage in “bold, consistent experimentation” as FDR did? I don’t see one.

It’s a nice parallel, though. FDR’s predecessor was a do-nothing, market-tunnel-visioned, denier like President Bush, Jr., is. Maybe history will repeat and we’ll come out from him with someone who sees the big picture and the opportunities in adversity that FDR saw.