Cherie strays off message

One of the most appalling things about American public life is "on message" speech. Such a teeth-gnashing insult to intelligence and common sense, and yet weirdly, depressingly effective in the brain-benumbed Coke or Pepsi range of political discourse. On Message speech is why Karl Rove and Mary Matalin have jobs (and James Carville for that matter).

Our British allies in the Global War on Terror—er I mean in the "global struggle against violent extremism"—haven't yet completely mastered the strategy of repeating the same four or five lies until you're blue in the face.

Mr. Blair does try. He stays On Message even when he has to speak for an hour without notes in Parliament, something they could never train our presidential monkey to do in a million years.

Mrs. Blair, another story. Not only does she wander from the script (speaking in a Muslim country, no less), she even (gasp) lets slip statements that actually function as a reflection of, er, reality, instead of advancing the crazy notion that takes as its premise the idea that history began in September 2001, when "evil" popped up completely out of nowhere.

Cherie will probably find a way to recant tomorrow, but let's savor the moment. When's the last time an American politician said something like, "It is all too easy for us to respond to such terror in a way which undermines our commitment to our most deeply held values and convictions" or "As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up, you are never going to make progress"?

If Mr. and Mrs. keep this up, the Blairs might yet rise to Clintonian levels of frostiness.

From the Scotsman:

CHERIE Blair yesterday made an extraordinary criticism of her husband's government as she called for the judiciary to stand up to the "hurly-burly of majoritarian politics" in the war on terror.

Judges, she said, should resist political pressure over the conviction of suspected extremists and uphold human rights legislation.

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