This explains a lot. The White House is holding the big summit on Iraq today. One of the key players is Meghan O'Sullivan -- the staffer who "Meghan-izes" (defined below) to keep Bush up-to-date on Iraq. Apparently, she's learned to speak his language -- so he listens to her. In other words, sounds likes she authors "Iraq for Dummies":
She coordinates the political, security and reconstruction efforts for Iraq throughout the agencies of the government. Not least, she briefs the president before all of his phone calls and meetings with Iraqi leaders.Because what Mr. Bush likes is way, way more important than trying to come up with a strategy that will end the violence. First and foremost, be succinct and cheerful. That style doesn't work for everyone:
Although Ms. O'Sullivan does not make major decisions — the administration's policy is run by Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to Iraq, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — she is important because of her closeness to the president and her role in helping to form his thinking.
"She's able to go to the president and say, 'Look, here's what's happening,' and distill a complex mass of developments into something more penetrable," said Larry Diamond, a former senior adviser to Mr. Bremer.
Ms. O'Sullivan, who was crisp and wary in a recent interview in her office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, would say little more about her conversations with Mr. Bush. But people who have seen her brief the president say she has been succinct, unpretentious, full of facts and cheerful — exactly what Mr. Bush likes.
In Baghdad, American Embassy officials sometimes use the phrase, "Let's not Meghan-ize the problem," meaning, let's not try to impose order on the chaos of Iraq with one of her five-point presentations.And while Bush may like cheerful and succinct Meghan-izing, the rest of us now realize the harsh reality, as Think Progress documents, that we're never leaving Iraq.
