Deadpan

Dana Bash, CNN's White House Correspondent, deadpans
Bush's speech.

BASH (voice-over): With support for Iraq at an all-time low, the president cast his unmistakably familiar stay the course refrain in new stark terms.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're facing a radical ideology with unalterable objectives, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world.

BASH: Mr. Bush tried to put near daily terrorism in Iraq in a global context connected to bombings in Bali, London and Egypt.

BUSH: Focused ideology. A set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane.

BASH: And as he urged patience in Iraq, the president compared U.S. fights against communism and fascism to terrorism saying its leaders seek a totalitarian empire.

BUSH: Enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia.

BASH: He spoke in a strikingly personal way about Osama bin Laden, chiding him as a hypocritical son of privilege.

Bush himself tripped over a piece of humiliating self-parody:

BUSH: He assures them that his -- that this is the road to paradise, though he never offers to go along for the ride.

At this point in the Bush Magical Historical Legacy Tour, no one in the administration can sneeze without ironic overtones being heard.