Even Howard Fineman is finally able to see the truth.

Jan. 10, 2007 - George W. Bush spoke with all the confidence of a perp in a police lineup. I first interviewed the guy in 1987 and began covering his political rise in 1993, and I have never seen him, in public or private, look less convincing, less sure of himself, less cocky. With his knitted brow and stricken features, he looked, well, scared. Not surprising since what he was doing in the White House library was announcing the escalation of an unpopular war.

The president may well be right that we cannot afford to leave or lose in Iraq . He makes profound sense when he observes that a collapse of Iraq would mean the rise of a giant version of the Taliban's Afghanistan—with a million times the oil in the ground.

But if he was trying to assure the country that he had confidence in his own plan to prevent that collapse, well, a picture is worth a thousand words. And the words themselves weren't that assuring either. Does anyone in America or Iraq , or anywhere else in the world for that matter, really think that the Sunnis and Shia will make peace? Does anyone think that embedded American soldiers won't be in danger of being fragged by their own Iraqi brethren? Does anyone really think that Iran and Syria can be prevented from playing havoc in Iraq and the rest of the region by expressions of presidential will?

As is customary with major policy announcements, the White House released a live version of this speech several hours before airtime. Even before the speech had hit the airwaves there was significant adverse reaction. I’m sure he knew of this going into the speech. It’s odd that a man who has such enormous contempt for the American system of constitutional government would be frightened as he tells the world that he really doesn’t care what 88% of his constituents think.

The attack on the Iranian consulate in Irbil occurred about an hour before the speech. I suppose it’s possible a swift diplomatic reaction to this act of war reached him just before the speech but it’s unlikely his handlers would have told him bad news. It’s well-known Mr Bu$h only accepts applause and good news from his sycophants.

So, why was he so frightened?