Bush Speech Widens the Reality Gap

From the Center for American Progress via AlterNet:

Facing polls which show Americans have lost confidence in his ability to manage the crisis in Iraq, President Bush delivered the first in a series of speeches to respond to growing criticism. He offered not one new policy proposal. One administration official acknowledged the growing credibility gap on Iraq, saying the president's speech was needed to dispel "this idea that we don't know what we're doing." But the post-speech headlines reflected just how far the president was from laying out a clear vision: Newsday headlined, "Bush: More of the Same," the Boston Globe pointed out "Bush's Reality Gap" and the Houston Chronicle noted "Iraqi Leaders Say They're Dissatisfied With Post-Occupation Plan." Bush "did not provide the midcourse correction that even some Republicans had called for in the face of increasingly macabre violence." He also did not "try to answer some of the looming questions that have triggered growing skepticism and anxiety at home and abroad about the final U.S. costs, the final length of stay for U.S. troops, or what the terms will be for a final U.S. exit from Iraq." Instead, he "basically repackaged stalled U.S. policy as a five-step plan."

I didn't watch the speech myself; I was at rehearsal. However, I'm glad I missed it: it sounds like it was pretty annoying, and from what I can tell, it appears that Bush is still stuck in the repeat-it-until-it's-truth mode that has served him so well only until lately. The Chimp-in-Chief better watch it, or come November he's going to be replaced by a kinder, gentler corporatist hawk from that kinder, gentler Republican Party otherwise known as the Democrats.

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