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Grading Bush's SpeechOur video focus group rates the surge.

By Andy Bowers
Posted Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007, at 7:48 PM ET
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The reviews are pouring in from Capitol Hill, 2008 presidential candidates, and pundits. But how did President Bush's Wednesday night speech play with voters?

To get some insight, Slate has partnered with HCD Research, a market-research company. HCD surveys people over the Internet by allowing participants to rate a video as they watch it on their computers; they then display the results on a graph as the video plays.

HCD gathered key excerpts from the president's speech, and then played them for a group of 435 Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Participants were asked to rate the believability of what President Bush was saying at any given moment on a sliding scale that ranges from +100 to -100. Each colored graph represents the average of the responses from everyone of that party affiliation.

Take a look at the video to see what these voters thought. (Click here for more information about how the focus group was conducted.)

The video was produced by VidLit.

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