But that was an honest miscalculation by the WH. Remember, right down to the wire Rove was confidently predicting that the GOP would hold onto both houses. Bush believed him, which was why he didn’t change his strategy until after the election, why he kept Rumsfeld and why he insisted we were winning in campaign appearances. He thought he could still convince the country he was right.

After the election, he came to the realization that the country no longer was buying the victory talk or the Defeatocrat=terrorist enabler rhetoric. He got rid of Rummy and looked at new strategies. Bush also rejected the ISG’s conclusions because, they admitted defeat.

And once Brown has spoken , then blair has no choice but to obey his master, otherwise he’d be out of no 10, and the police wouldn’t be quite so nice towards an ex-PM as they are towards an a current PM.

Look at the timescales, it suits brown far more that it suits Tony ‘he does have wmds’ blair.

Just remember back to the first Gulf War (which I really think this administration thought this war would resemble). We beat back Saddam out of Kuwait, and pinned him down in defeat. Great victory for Bush Sr, right? Except how many knew that we had encouraged an insurgency of Shiites and Kurds to rebel within Iraq and then failed to back them up, resulting in the death of tens of thousands after Saddam got his revenge?? I don’t even remember any of that making the headlines. When its viewed in that light, its genocide, brought on by our lack of follow-through. Political spin, now more than then, has replaced reality.

Rubbish. If what matters was domestic politics, Bush would have declared victory and left before the O6 elections.

Sullivan is ignoring Bush’s stubborness.

Kritter argued at TMV yesterday that a strategy similar to the one Sullivan outlined is underway. I thought it was an interesting argument, and I hoped it was correct, but am not convinced.

Liberals have been stating that Bush would do precisely this for months. Before the 06 vote Fred Kaplan wrote at Slate that he was certain Bush would declare victory and bail. Bush didn’t.

I hope most of the troops are out by the end of the year. I don’t see much more value to their presence. However, unlike liberals, I don’t see this happening. If Bush has one defining character trait, its stubborness.