eorge W. Bush delivered the second installment of his government-reform speech Friday morning before a prim audience of around 80 in Philadelphia's historic Carpenter's Hall, site of the first meeting of the Continental Congress. In Friday's talk, Bush developed the theme that Larry Kudlow has urged on him in recent NRO pieces: that the federal government needs to be remade along the lines of the new, nimble Internet economy. Good for W. — but his speech, which had almost no applause lines, had two deficiencies.

The first was its lack of music. The slogan emblazoned on Bush's podium, “A New Approach: Doing the People's Business,” combines a totally anodyne phrase with a cliché. Which goes to show you that the sloganeers in the Bush campaign are lost if they aren't alliterating. Also, Bush was standing in one of the cradles of the American revolution and only mentioned the framers once, by way of saying that their vision of government can no longer apply in today's world. Memo to the Bush campaign: The Founding Fathers are popular! Bush shouldn't let obvious opportunities to invoke them pass him by.

The second deficiency was that there were no policy proposals big enough to capture anyone's imagination: It was almost all commissions, audits, contracting. In the press filing room after the speech, slightly puzzled reporters asked one another, “What's your lede?” This effort had former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith written all over it — worthy, but small-scale and uninspiring wonkery. Goldsmith was on hand for the speech.

Also here, of course, was veep possibility Gov. Tom Ridge. His introduction of Bush on Friday morning was eloquent and appropriate. He cuts a fine presence — he's tall, but still built like a fireplug, with the thick neck of a linebacker. The problem with Ridge — besides abortion and his asinine votes in the House, exposed recently by John J. Miller — is that he overshadows Bush physically, who looks short and scrawny in comparison (as most anyone would).

But, all this carping aside, the thrust of Bush's talks yesterday was exactly right. Anything that puts him on the side of the dynamic change and renewal happening in the country, and in opposition to current practices in Washington, is helpful to his cause. Together with his Social Security and Medicare reform ideas — he went out of his way this morning to talk about changing Medicare — Bush is developing an identity as the “outsider/reformer.” That identity will be more important to him in the campaign than any specific issue.