"My fellow unindicted, co-conspirators..."

Before the expected horrendous proclaimation of "so long suckers!" farewell address, one of many off-putting things about Bush's speech was the setting. The notion of a farewell address is not a new one, after all George Washington issued one (in writing) but delivering an actual speech seems to have started with Eisenhower.

We remember that moment when Ike warned us about the dangers of the "military industrial complex" and how we've ignored the advice for nearly a half-century. After all, what the hell did he know about that stuff?

Farewell addresses have now become the norm. But not before a "live audience" of sycophants. Eisenhower spoke from the Oval Office and so have his successors like Reagan and Clinton. But not ol' 43, he has to speak from the East Room three-fourths filled with his remaining supporters, all 204 people out of nation of more than 300 million and utter 15 consecutive minutes of laughable and tragic delusions.

Who else would ever do such a thing?

Oh, right.

How fitting. At least he didn't say his mother was a saint.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]