And the Washington Post was obviously spoon fed "background" material on just how that's happening. Funny, how Dan Bartlett is the hero of this saga -- and Karl Rove doesn't come off so well. Makes one wonder who gave the Post such great spin:
President Bush shifted his rhetoric on Iraq in recent weeks after an intense debate among advisers about how to pull out of his political free fall, with senior adviser Karl Rove urging a campaign-style attack on critics while younger aides pushed for more candor about setbacks in the war, according to Republican strategists.This article is also based on the Post believing it's own polling about the President's approval rating. While the Post poll had Bush rising eight points to 47%, it was the outlier. Most of the other polls, which Mystery Pollster has compiled, kept the President in the high 30s/low 40s. But, hey, they're the Post.
The result was a hybrid of the two approaches as Bush lashed out at war opponents in Congress, then turned to a humbler assessment of events on the ground in Iraq that included admissions about how some of his expectations had been frustrated. The formula helped Bush regain his political footing as record-low poll numbers began to rebound. Now his team is rethinking its approach to his second term in hopes of salvaging it.
The Iraq push culminated the rockiest political year of this presidency, which included the demise of signature domestic priorities, the indictment of the vice president's top aide, the collapse of a Supreme Court nomination, a fumbled response to a natural disaster and a rising death toll in an increasingly unpopular war. It was not until Bush opened a fresh campaign to reassure the public on Iraq that he regained some traction.
