Wednesday, January 10, 2007

THIS IS THE TIME FOR SUBSTANCE   [Byron York]

If you haven't seen David Frum's Diary, read his suggestion for the president's speech tonight:

No Oval Office, no big desk. Have the president stand in the Map Room, the room on the ground floor of White House in which Franklin Roosevelt reviewed strategy with his generals…

Hang a map of Baghdad on one wall. A map of Iraq on another. Have the president stand between them with a laser pointer. Let him show where the sectarian fighting in the city is occurring, let him detail where US troops are currently deployed. Then he can explain the new plan: Where the extra troops would go, what they would do, where the new checkpoints would be placed, how the city would be cleared, how it would be held.

No flowery language, no hazy generalities. Detail, detail, detail — to assure the American people that their commander-in-chief has thought this plan through and has reason to believe that it can and will work.

01/10 11:42 AMShare