Mr Blair goes to Washington

It sounds like the British Prime Minister’s speech to the joint meeting of Congress on Thursday was a bravura performance.

Porphyrogenitus records it
Joe Katzman garlands it
Lileks sums it up

I’ve heard it said that Tony Blair prefers a North American audience because we are less critical of him.

This may be because we are not engaged with him in the grubby pragmatism of domestic politics and are therefore more willing to believe that he is driven by reasoned principle and sincere conviction.

Does the wide Atlantic add perspective or just obscure the view?

UPDATE
Alain E Brain has a link to C-SPAN’s video coverage of the speech.