NETANYAHU GETS MORE ROUNDS OF APPLAUSE THAN BUSH DID RIGHT AFTER 9/11

I was going to look at the number of rounds of applause Benjamin Netanyahu got during today's speech to Congress and compare it to the number of rounds President Obama got during his last State of the Union address, but I know what right-wingers would say to that: Netanyahu is a great man, a great friend of America, and Obama isn't.

There's no arguing with wingers on this stuff, so I looked at another fairly recent speech delivered to a joint session of Congress, one that no Republican could possibly criticize: President George W. Bush's speech on September 20, 2001, nine days after the 9/11 attacks. Surely that speech, also before a majority-Republican Congress, would have been greeted with a great number of rounds of applause -- right?

Well, here's the tally:

Bush, nine days after 9/11: 31 rounds of applause
Netanyahu today: 43 rounds of applause

Some of this has to do with the length of the speeches: a quick word count of Bush's speech tallies it at 3054 words; Netanyahu's was 3918. But still: Netanyahu was applauded once every 91 words. Bush was applauded only once every 98.

Benjamin Netanyahu: the greatest American, according to the current conservative Congress?

(See also the recent Public Policy Polling survey of Republican voters, in which Netanyahu had a higher favorable rating than any likely Republican candidate for president.)