Tonight's Speech: Cause for Concern?

The Washington Times headlines "Bush to Tout Guest-Worker Plan," and says "Despite terrible polls...the White House believes the public is coming around to its point of view."

If this is indeed the actual thrust of the speech, rather than a substantive change on border security, the President and the country are in trouble.

I have a worried feeling that the "temporary" deployment of the National Guard to the border is not being done for the sake of actual border security, in and of itself, but as a politically expedient way to attempt to win support for the Administration's main goal, amnesty and a guest worker program. I hope very much that I'm wrong.

Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin are concerned as well.

Hugh's radio show will be extended for two hours this evening in order to cover the speech and reaction.

Update: Rush Limbaugh is concerned too. Here is a rough transcription and paraphrase of the opening of his show today:

"If he's not firm about this, if this is just lip service to tide people over for a while, it's going to come back and boomerang... I'm concerned about this because I don't like the pre-speech leaks... If these leaks are accurate, we're going to temporarily deploy the National Guard until we build up the border patrol. The Administration has (previously) refused to fund all the border patrol agents that have been authorized by Congress. If these leaks are accurate, the Guard will not be that strong and they will not be on the border guarding...according to a spokesman on a morning show...if you dilute the significance of the guard on the border, then what's the point of putting them there? The public can't be fooled by any of this. I'm serious as a heart attack about this, folks, if we hear tonight about jobs Americans won't do and the same old lines...a red flag is raised. This is all predicated on these pre-speech leaks."

And now to wait and hear what the President actually says...