Yes, now it’s official. White House spokesman Tony Snow says there will be no more talk of “stay the course”:
President Bush has decided not to use the phrase “stay the course” any more to describe his Iraq policy.
But WAIT, didn’t:
—Bush insist that they didn’t say that?
–White House counselor Dan Bartlett insist the administration policy never was “stay the course”?
So they’re not going to use the phrase they say they never said and they’re not going to pursue a policy they recently insisted they weren’t pursuing.
“Video tapes, schmideo tapes — what do we care if Sean and Rush back us up?”
Oh. MORE:
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow says the phrase doesn’t capture the “dynamism” of the tactics America and its allies are employing.
The announcement came two weeks ahead of an election in which Democrats are calling for a change of direction in Iraq.
The last time Bush used the phrase “stay the course” in a speech was August 30th in Salt Lake City. Since then, he’s stressed that his administration’s been adapting in Iraq as the enemy changes tactics.
Bush met again Monday morning with top national security aides. But Snow says there’s “nothing dramatically new” going on. And he downplays reports the administration’s drawing up new benchmarks for Iraqis to meet, saying both sides have been doing that for months.
History will record that this is an unusual administration that redefined the meaning of the words “truth” and accuracy.
The scary part: there are Americans who will quickly discard what they heard with their own ears and nod their heads in agreement when they’re told they were never told what they were told — and they are told that what was never said won’t be said any more.
Get it?
UPDATE: Editor & Publisher offers this exchange:
Q Tony, it seems what you have is not “stay the course.” Has anybody told the President he should stop calling it “stay the course” then?
MR. SNOW: I don’t think he’s used that term in a while.
Q Oh, yes, he has, repeatedly.
MR. SNOW: When?
Q Well, in August, because I wrote a story saying he didn’t use it — and I was quite sternly corrected.
MR. SNOW: No, he stopped using it.
Q Why would he stop using it?
MR. SNOW: Because it left the wrong impression about what was going on. And it allowed critics to say, well, here’s an administration that’s just embarked upon a policy and not looking at what the situation is, when, in fact, it’s just the opposite. The President is determined not to leave Iraq short of victory, but he also understands that it’s important to capture the dynamism of the efforts that have been ongoing to try to make Iraq more secure, and therefore, enhance the clarification — or the greater precision.
Q Is the President responsible for the fact people think it’s stay the course since he’s, in fact, described it that way himself?
MR. SNOW: No.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.