Tuesday night, Barack Obama announced his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, he did little to explain it.

We read the transcript a few times after watching the speech, thinking that maybe we missed something during the excitement of discovering drinking games. What were we looking for? A reason.

Not just any reason — a good reason. Something meaty, something justifiable, even if we disagreed with it. We understand that a speech can’t be a detailed position paper — but if you’re addressing the nation on matters of life and death (never mind the treasure), you can take the time to make the case. Especially if you’re The Greatest Orator of Our Generation.

And what did we find? Alas, not much:

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How bad are the Bush Wars? This bad: No good songs. No good movies. No good cartoons. Even the Korean War got a good television series, if you didn’t mind waiting a generation.

But all we have tonight is this Open Thread/Bond Drive for Barack Obama’s Afghanistan speech. Make your participation count — you’ll need an answer handy when your grandkids ask what you did during the liveblog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5FlC1MpkE

[ Onion Flash video not available. ]

Zombie Reagan Raised From Grave To Lead GOP [The Onion]

We offer our apology to the girl with the Sarah Palin cutout, whom we viciously accused of nursing a secret desire to watch a Partridge Family reboot on the Disney Channel. Upon further investigation, we’ve learned that she was only trying to save some serious coin over being photographed with the real Talibunny:

A spokesman for Palin’s book tour says the crowd won’t be allowed to take photos of Palin, but can pose with her and buy copies later from a Web site.

This confirms our notion that Palin isn’t really running for President, but doing market research for her new line of theme parks. The Flash-in-the-Pan Mountain ride will be especially thrilling, when automated cameras take your picture as you crash to the bottom of the polls. Raise your hands, everyone!

Sarah Palin book-signing today draws crowds in Tempe [AZcentral, via Jamie Sommers]

We’ve invited hunka-hunka congressional candidate Adam Kokesh to remind us of the spirit of Christmas. And by “invited,” we mean copy and paste today’s email from him.

Greetings!

Happy Holidays! The Kokesh campaign would like to introduce a new way to promote Liberty throughout this holiday season.

What are you giving your loved ones this year? Thinking about giving the same old stuff you give EVERY YEAR? Are you having trouble deciding what to get that person who ‘has everything?’

This year, do something different. Give something that really counts, and purchase a gift that your friends and family will enjoy for generations… give ‘A Gift of Liberty.’

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Barack Obama is going to give a great speech tonight. That’s what he does. That’s what put him on the national stage. That’s what won him the election.

We like good speeches. It’s been a long time since we could enjoy them in American politics. We were too young to listen to Jack. We were too young to understand Bobby. Teddy could deliver a stemwinder, but his speeches were very Old School, a voice from a dying generation. Nobody younger could get away with that.

But as much as we enjoy Obama’s speeches, it pains us to say we don’t trust them. Not any more. Our immediate response to the healthcare speech was simple and direct: “Great speech. But what happens tomorrow?” Get us excited about high ideals, and that just magnifies the disappointment when the practical policies don’t live up to them.

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