LIVE BLOGGING THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH:

9:15 P.M. ET:  Most of the analysis is over.  Lindsey Graham gave one of the most reasonable responses, saying that he supported the surge in Afghanistan, but not the giving of a timeline.  By contrast, Dennis Kucinich, on Fox, gave the response of the lunatic fringe, which is to pull out of Afghanistan now.  When asked how he'd deal with the Taliban, he replied, "Negotiate."  The way we do with Iran, I guess.

8:48 P.M. ET:  Turned to CNN, which looks like it has about 6,000 pundits on screen at the same time.  It's like the old Ed Sullivan Show.  But Barbara Starr, one of the best reporters at CNN, points out that Obama put boundaries around our effort in Afghanistan, and she was plainly skeptical.

8:45 P.M. ET:  Switched to MSNBC.  Chris Matthews sounds crazy, attacking Paul Wolfowitz.  Rachel Maddow is attacking George Bush.  It's a waste of time.  Switch off.

8:40 P.M. ET:  Reaction to the speech begins.  Krauthammer is down on it, calling it "strange."  He compares the speech to Bush's speech announcing the surge in Iraq.  Krauthammer points out that Bush never talked about a timeline. 

8:36 P.M. ET:  Speech over.  A good speech, but we'll have to look at the details.  Lots of idealism in the speech.  The shadow of his party's left still hangs over everything. 

8:35 P.M. ET:  Obama gets more applause by asking for national unity.  He might send a note about that to the leftist fringe in his party, and to the Hollywood crowd. 

8:33 P.M. ET:  Obama gets his first applause by committing the U.S. to advancing freedom to others.  This has been a weakness in his administration, and it's good to hear the words.  We'll see if the words have meaning.   

8:30 P.M. ET:  Obama is now talking about his attempts to rebuild our diplomacy, a slap at Bush that is unnecessary. 

8:25 P.M. ET:  Obama is now discussing the economic cost of war.  A bit discordant when we're talking about human life.  Now he says we must rebuild our economy here at home.  That's true, but you get the uneasy feeling that this part is politics.  Says that economics is one reason why our commitment to Afghanistan cannot be open-ended. 

8:23 P.M. ET:  Obama is now attempting to knock down the arguments against sending additional troops.  He rejects, correctly, the notion that this is another Vietnam.  He rejects the status quo.

8:18 P.M. ET:  Obama is saying that the Afghan government must understand that it bears ultimate responsbility for security in its country.  It's okay, but I'm uneasy about that timeline.  It contradicts everything else the president is saying. 

8:15 P.M. ET:  He's kind of back on track, giving a list of our goals in Afghanistan, and they're reasonable and well presented.  But again he now says we'll achieve these things in 18 months.  This timeline is designed to appease the left, and is weakening the speech.

8:13 P.M. ET:  Whoops.  The speech is going a bit off the rails.  Obama inserts a discordant note, reminding the audience that he opposed the Iraq war.  And now he announces that he'll deploy 30,000 additional troops, but says they'll start coming home in 2011.  What?  Why signal to the enemy what your withdrawal plans are?  This part falls down.  We're still listening.

8:11 P.M. ET:  A reasonable speech so far.  Obama is making clear that the Taliban must be defeated.  He is also defending himself, insisting that there has been no delay in deploying troops.  About that we'll see.

8:07 P.M. ET:  Obama gets a little dig in at our taking our eyes off Afghanistan, but does praise what we've accomplished in Iraq.  Good.  Can't quibble with it.

8:04 P.M. ET:  Mr. Obama starts strongly, in words that could have been spoken by George W. Bush.  He correctly reminds us of 9-11, the reason we're in Afghanistan.  He denounces the Taliban clearly.  He gives the usual stuff that Al Qaeda distorts Islam, but, in context, it's reasonably stated.

8:02 P.M. ET:  The president enters to reasonable applause.

8:01 P.M. ET:  The president is about to speak at Eisenhower Hall, United States Military Academy, West Point.  I have spent many happy hours in that hall, usually listening to the West Point Concert Band. 

7:58 P.M. ET:    We'll start our live-blogging of the president's address from West Point in a few minutes.

December 1, 2009