"Delusional Hedgehog" -- Three interesting takes on Bush's State of the Union

There's no point in my analyzing Bush's State of the Union speech when so many others have done such an excellent job.

Harold Meyerson in The Washington Post wins my prize for best metaphor: He calls Bush "a delusional hedgehog who knows one thing that isn't so." A hedgehog, in the classic analysis by the political philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin, is one who has a "single central vision." You can work out from that what happens if the hedgehog is delusional.

Juan Cole deftly rips apart everything Bush said about Iraq and terrorism.

And The New York Times published a blistering editorial this morning -- actually, it went up online about an hour after the speech. It ended with these choice words:

Say what you will about the flaws and shortcomings of the two-party system. After six years of the Bush presidency, at least we know it’s a lot better than the one-party system.

Too bad it took six years for enough people to recognize the problem. Now we've got to figure out how to fix it -- preferably before Jan. 20, 2009.