The roll-out is beginning...

Hugh Hewitt writes:

In his campaign stops today, President Bush ripped into John Kerry's non-record in the Senate, using a new stump speech in both Missouri and Michigan.  Kerry's left almost no footprint on the Senate though he has spent 20 years there --like the kid at the 25th high school reunion who for the life of you you can't remember in even the smallest way.....

...Bush also laid out the framework for his "ownership culture" and "responsibility first" themes for the fall. I watched the speech uninterrupted on a long plane ride, and thought to myself that the roll-out is beginning, and that it is an impressive debut of powerful themes. No happy talk and no minimization of the tasks ahead. Bush closes with a stern reminder of the battles ahead and the overarching issue of the war, but emphasizes that the domestic agenda is one of tailoring new laws to the new econmy, which means individual ownership of health plans, retirement accounts, and small businesses. It is very progressive in the sense that personal liberty and autonomy are the most progressive of all goals. Kerry's appeal to the cliches of the past felt shopworn opposite Bush's sweeping assessment of the many changes that must accompany the new economy.