You're in fine form, m'dear. The President doing the "tongue thing"..."Like a snake licking a rat"...124 times. That's an image nearly as creepy as Condi doing the hirez technicolor scream-and-leap, though not nearly as startling.

I was trying to count Bush's blink rate, because that too is another indicator of mental state. Didn't seem excessive, but maybe by now his handlers have been able cut back on the electrical shocks...;-) At the start of his Presidency, the boy twitched like he was being electrocuted whenever he was in public.

I think Bush has learned to control his face pretty well by now. I found myself watching Cheney and Pelosi a lot, because their poker faces aren't as practiced. Cheney only looked like he had a bad case of indigestion by the end, with only periodic episodes of stomach cramps and rising bile during the speech, so he must've had a terrific time and been deliriously happy. Pelosi's face gave away more reactions, ranging from sucking-a-lemon pursed lips to a grandmotherly twinkle. I think she doesn't try to keep her face blank, but I suspect she was consciously controlling the expressions she displayed (notwithstanding such lapses in dignity as patting her hair once in a goofily air-headed way). That's what made her face almost a policy guide to the Democratic response, since her conscious Speaker-of-the-House mind was choosing expressions and body language to convey conscious messages.

It's all theater.