RNC @ MSG: Laura Bush

I more or less shared Mr. Geraghty’s take on the First Lady’s address…

Laura was fine, nothing particularly memorable, but exactly the Laura Bush that much of the country has grown to know and appreciate over the last four years: Gentle, supportive, warm, surrounded by a fuzzy aura of congeniality.

Basically what Americans generally expect to see from a first lady, and all the more so after the eight years of Madusa that preceded her.

But then I read Dick Morris’ take, and did a, well, double-take:

Laura Bush's speech last night delivered exactly what President Bush needed. Her incredible speech reached women voters in a way that other speakers at either convention have failed to do.

Unlike her husband, the first lady drew explicitly the connection between the offensive operations in the War on Terror and the work to defend our families from the threats that haunt them.

Her speech was almost a female state of the union address — taking each of the Administration's policies and relating them to the concerns of the half of the electorate that the male political establishment doesn't understand and rarely appeals to.

Maybe that’s why it didn’t have that kind of impact on me.

Theresa Heinz Kerry's speech last month was about herself — explaining her values to an apprehensive America.

Hillary Clinton's speech was about her own political career and agenda, in effect, running for first lady…and beyond.

But Laura Bush's speech last night was about us. She showed how her husband's policies affect our daily lives.

Her speech brought a Clintonesque feel for our pain and a grasp of what we need from a president to the Republican convention. She did more in half an hour to humanize President Bush and make his policies relevant to our families than Dubya has done in dozens of speeches over the past three years.

Morris’ conclusion? It was an upper-deck home run, and will guarantee the President “a bounce that will last for a very, very long time.”

He didn’t say how big a bounce, but I think we can presume that his forecast of an 8-10 point lead for Bush by the middle of this month is still in place.

If so, I guess it’ll go to show what a “mere housewife” can still do.