Monday, May 24, 2004
Can Bush Regain the High Ground on Iraq?
Power abhors a vacuum and a vacuum is the best way to describe the Administrations handling of the Iraq War. For those of us who originally supported the President based on claims that Iraq’s WMD were an imminent threat, we’ve been left out to dry (like so many Tony Blairs) these have been harrowing months. The most recent and damaging distraction of prison abuse photos has cut to the bone on our back up argument that the invasion was justified on human rights issues alone. Further undermining Bush’s leadership is that our “Ally� Chalabi, whom we paid $340,000/month, turns out to potentially be nothing more than the two bit crook people warned us he was.
Bush has not done a credible job of managing the issue for the public, but is that about to change? His address tonight will hopefully answer some questions on the future of Iraq and what the plan will be. But, there seems to be widespread agreement that we need to finish the job, Senator Clinton is even calling on the Senate to increase the size of the military for Pete’s sake. Aren’t the larger issues here why are we there in the first place and what’s being done to fix are clearly faulty intelligence services? Will we get the visionary Bush that called on Congress to step up funding for AIDS in Africa or the crabby marmish Bush of the ultra-lame 2004 SOTU address? It will be interesting to see how fine a line he will walk. With not only Democrats, but also Republicans asking some tough questions Bush will need to provide some answers as well and should try to avoid making the speech too political. Bush’s one remaining strength is his ability to be underestimated, he needs to draw on that strength now.
Bush has not done a credible job of managing the issue for the public, but is that about to change? His address tonight will hopefully answer some questions on the future of Iraq and what the plan will be. But, there seems to be widespread agreement that we need to finish the job, Senator Clinton is even calling on the Senate to increase the size of the military for Pete’s sake. Aren’t the larger issues here why are we there in the first place and what’s being done to fix are clearly faulty intelligence services? Will we get the visionary Bush that called on Congress to step up funding for AIDS in Africa or the crabby marmish Bush of the ultra-lame 2004 SOTU address? It will be interesting to see how fine a line he will walk. With not only Democrats, but also Republicans asking some tough questions Bush will need to provide some answers as well and should try to avoid making the speech too political. Bush’s one remaining strength is his ability to be underestimated, he needs to draw on that strength now.
