It was better than I expected, but my expectations were fairly low, anyway. Despite that, Mr. Bush did a fairly good job. He seemed a bit more comfortable than one would have expected, given his first such speech in front of a Democratically controlled Congress, and Nancy Pelosi being seated behind him. "You didn't vote for failure" in Iraq was a good and effective line, and one could hardly boo it. There was no jeering or other disrespectful behavior from Democrats, which some had predicted earlier today. There were no angry scowls on faces, as some had also predicted (or wished for).

One senses that the President may have made some slight headway this evening in convincing Congress to hold its fire on slapping serious restraints on his new strategy in Iraq. It will be interesting to see the overnight and next few days polling on the matter, however.