THE MORNING AFTER - AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  Andrew Malcolm, of the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket, gives the best written summary of the meaning of last night's presidential address:

President Obama spoke 4,582 words in his primetime Afghanistan war speech at West Point last night.

He said "al Qaeda" 22 times.

He mentioned the "Taliban" 12 times.

And here's how many times the Democratic chief executive used the word "victory" -- 0.

That telling omission says more than anything about Obama's 322d day in office when he gave his first major address as the United States' commander-in-chief.

Through a clever, timely use of leaks late Monday and suggestive advance excerpts Tuesday afternoon, the Obama White House communications team used the public and news media's intense curiosity about his war decisions to steer public attention toward the number of additional American troops he'll dispatch into that war-torn land in the first half of 2010.

That number is 30,000, significantly less than some reported numbers requested by the ground commander. But added to the existing 68,000 there and taken out of context, that would appear....

...to show a strong commitment to persevering in the bloody struggle, now entering its ninth year, that has claimed 936 American lives and another 596 allies, mainly Canadians and Brits.

But reading the speech over and over overnight, another, far stronger impression comes through: Limits.

As former White House communications strategist David Gergen puts it succinctly, "The cavalry is coming. But not for long."

COMMENT:  Increasingly, that is the impression that analysts are getting.  The speech was very well delivered, in an Adlai Stevenson sort of way.  The president, after all, is a fine speaker.  But, also in an Adlai Stevenson sort of way, you have to look carefully at the substance, or lack of it.

Obama's was instead a well-crafted, nicely-wrapped political speech that calmly attempts to give something to everybody, those concerned over national security and his Democratic Party's antiwar left.

I suspect that the president will get a slight bump in the polls for his impressive theatrical performance, but that it won't last long.  It is remarkable to see how many analysts have become cynical about this president and the way he goes about things.  They may have looked down on George W. Bush because he didn't sound like the ideal of an Ivy League president who strummed a 60's guitar, but it was hard to be cynical about Bush.  What you saw is what you got.

December 2, 2009