Channel 11 around here broadcasts in the full 1920x1080i, and I wanted to take advantage of it to pick up the sort of background nuance that you can never make out on blurry standard TV. Like I said, an hour of Bush talking is a static tableau, and the visual interest is in the background.

There was no voiceover with NBC's coverage, and none at MSNBC or Fox when I briefly tuned through. There was nothing special in the fact that Fox "STFU", that's standard protocol. I watched a little of the aftermath on MSNBC, but it was the same old generic stuff. Keith Olbermann tried a little too hard to spice it up, with leading questions to the other talking heads trying to draw out negative comments, but they were generally reluctant.

I think the point Olbermann was trying to make in his clumsy way was that the entire speech was about Iraq; that Iraq was always in the background and that all of the speech was crafted with Iraq in mind. The "story arc" led with upbeat domestic proposals, the pit in the middle was standard fearmongering, and it ended on the classic high note of "extraordinary ordinary Americans".

The sabre-rattling toward Iran was eerily reminiscent of the sabre-rattling toward Iraq in 2002 and 2003. This time, though, with the political situation being what it is, I interpreted the sabre-rattling as subtly directed toward Congress and the American people too. The message that came across was "If you hate what I did in Iraq, just watch what I'll do in Iran if you don't shut up and get off my back." The threat of attacking Iran may be a political bargaining chip, to be withdrawn if Bush gets concessions on Iraq. Nasty stuff, playing hardball politics with national security.