The hotline to Heaven must be down

Or maybe there's just a new speechwriter. Because there's been a change in Dubya's stock line about the source of man's desire for freedom. It used to be, in a statement astonishing for its claimed knowledge of God's intentions:

freedom is not America's gift to the world; freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world.

But on Tuesday, Dubya spoke at event called "Saluting Those Who Serve," not to be confused with his other speaking engagement of the day, at the America's Future Rocks concert. Really, it was called that. Anyway, while the latter event, featuring the worst of the MTV Hits video heavy rotation, wasn't deemed ready for any heavy theology, he did roll out a new freedom line at the former, Kelsey Grammer-fronted, extravaganza:

The road ahead will be difficult and dangerous, but we can proceed with courage and with confidence. History moves toward freedom because the desire for freedom is written in every human heart.

Which is actually an ingenious straddle between Creationism and Evolution. So how about some scientist-for-hire producing a paper on "The Emergence of Freedom through Natural Selection?"

UPDATE 10 MARCH: See our later post where God shows signs of a comeback in the freedom line, a comeback pretty much completed at a Dubya Social Security two-way monologue in Kentucky today:

We also understand freedom is not America's gift to anywhere, freedom is divined from the Almighty.

FINAL UPDATE 19 April: When in South Carolina, there's no room for finesse:

I don't believe freedom is America's gift to the world. I believe freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world. (Applause).