all the surprise is gone.

New rule for presidential speeches involving major details of policy on general war: when you are planning to give an address to the nation in the evening, it is best if the details of what you plan to do are not common knowledge 24 hours or more prior to it.

I know the proposals within need to be tested with members of Congress, etc., but it would probably serve the purpose better and keep some of the suspense in your speech if the policy proposals and minutiae had not been already predicted, leaked, or analyzed to death by Wednesday morning.

It doesn't help if your mind is an open book as far as these things go, and when it comes to Iraq stances, the president's book has been read multiple times, with the pages fraying by this point.