Bush's Odd Economic Speech

"Our economy is FLEX-i-ble.....We can be op-ti-mis-TIC."
When George W. Bush spoke to the Union League Club of Chicago this afternoon, he had a tall order--acknowledge the slowing economy, don't spook the markets and offer up some ideas beyond the usual litany of make my tax cuts permanent, pass my trade agreements and don't gimme any lip while offering some new ideas.
But Bush didn't do that. He offered no new ideas for the economy. He had nothing interesting to say about what ails us and didn't even entertain questions. There's a certain why-bother quality to a speech like that. Sure, it allows the president to show that he gets that the economy is going through trouble. He doesn't want to seem totally oblivious the way his father could at times.
I thought he'd actually want a little more fiscal stimulus, some additional tax cuts. I thought he'd do more on the housing mess. There wasn't even the cosmetics of saying that he'd meet with, say, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsona nd HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson to check in on the progress of their home mortgage initiative. In all, it was a strange address and oddly pointless.