Peggy is not the first former speechwriter to misread this speech. Peter Robinson was taking his lumps from his good friend Hugh Hewitt yesterday for making the same mistake. President Bush was announcing a change in the foreign policy of the US, to the country, but most importantly, to the world. In a long overdue recovery from the Cold War, the US would change it's pragmatic foreign policy which allowed us to ally with dictators and tyrants, to ally with democratic movements and freedom within other nations.
It is ridiculous to think the President was talking about military action to force every nation to conform to our standards of freedom and democracy. He was quite clear that was not the case. I'm sure Natan Sharansky was quite happy with the President's speech. If you need help understanding, read Natan's book, "The Case for Democracy".
He wasn't calling for perfection either. She must have misread that into his speech too.
Hey Don, you and I read this speech exactly the same. We are in the zone if you ask me. This was a change in foreign policy not a religious call, a call to war or anything else. And the President should "overreach" in the name of leadership. Would we want a Jimmie Carter in his sweater telling us to cut back our desires for the world. And I think that the point that our safety is dependent on the ending of tyranny to be breathtaking.
Change?
Sounded like the same policy to me ... just more and stupider.