Aboard the Lincoln, A White House Spectacular

After his historic speech, President Bush spent at least 20 minutes shaking hands and posing for photos aboard the aircraft carrier. (Damian Dovarganes -- AP)

Evoking memories of Ronald Reagan's Great Speeches in Great Settings and of Bob Hope's innumerable tours to entertain U.S. troops, President Bush conquered prime time last night with a stirring address from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, becoming the first president ever to speak to the nation from a warship at sea.

As was painfully obvious before the president even opened his mouth, this was not just a speech but a patriotic spectacular, with the ship and its crew serving as crucial backdrops for Bush's remarks, something to cheer the viewing nation and to make Bush look dramatically commander-in-chiefly.

The setting even included a large banner proudly advertising "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED."

There were several eloquent turns of phrase in the address, which was written by three White House speechwriters, according to a C-SPAN anchor, but they were overwhelmed by the visual impact, pictures both vast and intimate -- vast when a camera gave viewers a wide shot of the whole ship and intimate when Bush was in close-up delivering his remarks.

The visual spectacle had begun in the afternoon, when cable's news networks (but not the broadcast networks) carried, live, Bush's landing on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln in a Navy jet. He stepped from the plane in his flight suit looking fit and vigorous. After the speech Newt Gingrich, on Fox News Channel, likened the image to that of the fictitious president in the movie "Independence Day," a former fighter pilot who, in the climax, helps shoot down invading aliens in the sky.

On the deck of the Abraham Lincoln, the enormous assembled crowd of uniformed men and women cheered and cheered when Bush alighted. They were anything but cheered-out when the president began his speech about three hours later.

That skillfully calculated one-two parlay of Bush landing and later making his speech "allowed him to dominate television for an entire day," marveled commentator Fred Barnes on FNC during its round of postmortems. The broadcast networks had no after-speech comments, however; regular programming resumed almost immediately after Bush concluded at 9:26.

Reason: Thursday is a key night for advertising dollars and high-rated shows like "Friends" and "Survivor." In addition, May is a "sweeps" month, when Nielsen ratings count even more than usual. Perhaps all this was factored into White House planning for what CBS News anchor Dan Rather accurately referred to not as a mere speech but as a "production."

It was a White House Production and just as surely marked the president's re-election campaign as it did the end to, as Bush phrased it, "major combat operations" in Iraq.

He played to his audience as good performers do, praising the military for its work and telling them, "America is grateful for a job well done," even though the evening newscasts carried more stories of violent outbursts in Baghdad and Fallujah. Crowd shots gave the impression that every man and woman in uniform aboard the ship was thrilled with Bush's presence and his every spoken word.

As is usually the case with Bush, the speech was delivered in a steady, unmodulated cadence -- in what could be called a metronomic monotone. He has no particular galvanizing powers as an orator, but the plain, bland style works well on television. If he started thundering and bellowing, the more eloquent portions of the speech probably would have seemed hackneyed and old-fashioned. It's been assumed by some that Bush is simply a dull public speaker, but there may be a method to his monotony.

About midway, Bush invoked the bitter, painful memory of Sept. 11, 2001, and spent several minutes linking the terrorist attacks of that day to the seemingly successful operation in Iraq. "We removed an ally of al Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding," he said reassuringly, promising that "we are hunting down al Qaeda killers" in the Mideast and, implicitly, elsewhere. Members of the 82nd Airborne, he said, were "on the trail" of terrorists in Afghanistan even as he spoke.

Then at just the right moment, the tone of the speech turned solemn and Bush remembered those Americans who had fallen in battle. One fatality, Marine Cpl. Jason Mileo, was chosen as a symbol of all those who died and his photograph was supplied to the networks so it could be inserted when the president spoke glowingly of his service to the country.

"There is no homecoming for these families," Bush said. "Yet we pray in God's time their reunion will come." Continuing in a spiritual vein, Bush closed the speech biblically: "In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, 'To the captives, come out, and to those in darkness, be free.'

"May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless America."

That was it, and the cheers erupted louder than ever. Though the broadcast networks cut away, CNN and FNC on cable showed the president wading into the crowd and shaking hands for at least 20 minutes after he stopped speaking, often posing for snapshots.

Everything seemed to go gorgeously right for Bush. Even the pre-sunset lighting was perfect. Some of the military personnel behind him wore not drab uniforms but jackets of vivid red, green, yellow and blue -- standard issue for members of the crew who guide planes in for landing on the deck, each bright color connoting a different task.

Movie buffs with good memories might have been reminded by the spectacle of the opening scene of an MGM musical called "Anchors Aweigh," a World War II flag-waver. Jose Iturbi stood on the deck of just such an aircraft carrier conducting a huge Navy band as the movie began.

Of course, that was in Technicolor and accomplished with lavish special effects. But then again, so, in a way, was Bush's speech. He wasn't conducting a band, though; he was conducting a country.