Gore's speech was a delight, although the people who will defend-Bush-no-matter-what are happy to tell themselves that Gore was "whiny," "desperate," "opportunistic," "disingenuous," "ranting," "incoherent," "vengeful," or any number of other conveniently dismissible adjectives.

Actually, Gore simply presented a pretty good list of reasons why Americans must vote Bush out of office next year. And Bush's blindly loyal defenders have no experience in dealing honestly with cognitive dissonance, so they flail and fling insults.