Just a month ago, critics lambasted President George Bush for not making the case for the Iraq war and addressing the many criticisms of what led up to it and how it has been conducted.
Since then, you could swear that Bush is following this advice on how to rebound — particularly in his latest speech yesterday:
A day before Iraq’s first parliamentary elections, President Bush said Wednesday that Americans would have to remain patient and should expect more bloodshed as Iraqis struggled toward stability and democracy.
In the last of four speeches laying out his strategy for winning the war and bringing American troops home, Mr. Bush struck a tone of realism and spoke more bluntly than usual of his responsibility for invading Iraq partly on the basis of faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs.
But he gave no ground to critics who say the war was a mistake, pointing out that Iraq stood on the eve of electing what he said would be the only constitutional democracy in the Arab world. Speaking to an invited audience of scholars, members of Congress and diplomats in Washington, Mr. Bush stood firm in resisting calls, largely from Democrats, for a timetable for withdrawal.
The Times piece goes on to say:
The address summed up the themes that Mr. Bush had set out in three previous speeches on Iraq and terrorism over the past several weeks. As before, he used this occasion to speak more frankly than he normally does, albeit in a limited way, about mistakes. In doing so, he continued what appeared to be an effort by the White House to acknowledge public unhappiness with the war while casting Mr. Bush as optimistic about the outcome.
Will it fly with critics? Blogger Kevin Drum had this reaction:”George Bush gave a speech Wednesday in which he acknowledged that we got lots of bad intelligence about Iraq’s WMD before the war but failed to take any personal responsibility for demanding that very intelligence in the first place and ignoring all dissenting views.”
On the other hand, Mark I, a blogger on the Republican blog Red State, called the speech a “triumph.”
In it, the president capitalized on the momentum he has built for himself with the previous three speeches, and drove home his points with characteristic optimism…President Bush has drawn a clear distinction between himself and his opponents. The president claims the mantle of optimism. A can-do spirit that most of America can identify with. The Democrats are left to cater to those in our society who see America as the ultimate source of her own ills.
According to the BBC which has a roundup of press reaction HERE:”While reaction to the speech has been mixed, many pundits saw it was one of the president’s better constructed addresses. It was also one in which Mr Bush was seen to adopt a more candid tone than before this series of four speeches began.”
The Village Voice sees Bush on a definite rebound:”While many people see the presidency of George Bush as falling apart, the president may have just hit it lucky and instead be on the comeback trail.”
Meanwhile, Newsweek had this to say:
On the eve of Thursday’s parliamentary elections in Iraq, President George W. Bush did something he rarely likes to do: He admitted a mistake. Sort of.
…..Back in the spring, critics (many of them from the president’s own party) said Bush and other administration officials weren’t being frank enough about the scenario on the ground in Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney famously said the insurgency was in its “last throesâ€? while Bush himself rarely talked about the rising number of American military casualties or the violence on the ground. As Sen. Lindsey Graham told NEWSWEEK last summer, “It’s like the American people are watching a different movie.â€?
It seems the advice is finally getting through. On Wednesday, Bush was careful to stay away from any rosy scenarios. Although he touted tomorrow’s elections as a significant sign of progress, the president warned of the “days of uncertaintyâ€? still to come and urged patience from the American people….
One thing seems certain: at this writing, Bush seems on the rebound. You can see it in the northward polls. You can read it on happy Republican websites. You sense some frustration on the part of the Democrats.
Democrats may not wish to admit it — and it is heresy for some to state it — but when Howard Dean said the war could not be won it was a huge political blunder not just because the GOP info/propaganda machine would gleefully catch that ball and run with it but because it smacked of calling for an immediate pullout, which most polls show most Americans do not yet support. Dean then had to explain that statement — a sure sign that he had suffered a bout of the kind of political foot-in-mouth disease that some of his critics feared could afflict him as head of the DNC.
Once again, it was Howard Dean on the defensive and GOPers suggesting he was the Democratic party (he is a much easier and preferable target for them then Rep. John Murtha).
What is Bush doing now? He’s now basically doing the same thing as what someone going for a job interview does who finds the potential employer has reservations. He’s addressing these concerns head on and trying to close the pitch (in this case, to keep and regain support). Another way of looking at it: he’s akin to a salesman who realizes he must overcome all objections to close the sale.
Does that mean that every fact is accurate and every concern perfectly addressed? No. But he’s addressing them — which he hadn’t for a long time. And he has just inched close enough to an admission of error to satisfy some straying war supporters.
Does this mean his administration is out of the woods? Hardly. Even if there is a historical, moving election in Iraq tomorrow that goes off totally without a hitch, there will be tough days ahead. LOTS of unanswered questions that will be raised by his critics. There are rumors that Karl Rove may soon be headed to Indictment City.
But if you look where Bush was two months ago there has been a definite shift. Can he rebound from in effect being President of the GOP Base to again being President of the United States (with more than just his base and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity ever-loyally supporting him)? Possibly.
A lot of what happens next in political terms depends on whether Bush continues this seemingly more candid, visible presence — and what the Democrats do. Some duct tape for Howard Dean might help.
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.