From Laura Rozen's blog:
Bill Kristol is urging the White House to fight with "teeth" against the revelations from the Fitzgerald investigation, but it's worth noting that a couple months back he was urging the White House to get out there and have the president explain its Iraq policy to try to stem a rising tide of discontent. And lo and behold the president has been doing it, getting out there more and even taking questions from the audience for a change. And yet, a slew of recent polls would suggest that it hasn't stopped massive public loss of confidence in either the war or this president. On the contrary. Public opinion turns further against the Iraq war every week and the president has slipped a couple points in the polls even since a few months ago (including edging significantly into Republican numbers). The strategy wouldn't appear to be working. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but the news from Iraq has been too bad for too long for people to believe the rhetoric, even as it comes down a few notches closer to earth from the surreality of the administration's three years of overly optimistic pronouncements. And the spinning and tactical advice won't change that the public has lost confidence in the core thing that is being spun, a war they don't see has done anything but damage US national security and prestige in the world and drastically limit US choices for future crises. With 68% disapproval for the Iraq war, the public may get their big idea, but doesn't seem to endorse it and no longer trusts this administration to manage it. And one other thing: fighting dirty with war intelligence is what got the White House in trouble in the first place. Kristol's advice just reminds the public that these guys were always playing politics first with our national security. And it just feeds Fitzgerald's revelations that the White House was involved at the very highest levels in a conspiracy of retribution against a war critic. By urging his minions to ramp up the attacks, Kristol just adds credibility to the substance of Fitzgerald's emerging findings...http://tinyurl.com/j7vle
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Bill Kristol is urging the White House to fight with "teeth" against the revelations from the Fitzgerald investigation, but it's worth noting that a couple months back he was urging the White House to get out there and have the president explain its Iraq policy to try to stem a rising tide of discontent. And lo and behold the president has been doing it, getting out there more and even taking questions from the audience for a change. And yet, a slew of recent polls would suggest that it hasn't stopped massive public loss of confidence in either the war or this president. On the contrary. Public opinion turns further against the Iraq war every week and the president has slipped a couple points in the polls even since a few months ago (including edging significantly into Republican numbers). The strategy wouldn't appear to be working. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but the news from Iraq has been too bad for too long for people to believe the rhetoric, even as it comes down a few notches closer to earth from the surreality of the administration's three years of overly optimistic pronouncements. And the spinning and tactical advice won't change that the public has lost confidence in the core thing that is being spun, a war they don't see has done anything but damage US national security and prestige in the world and drastically limit US choices for future crises. With 68% disapproval for the Iraq war, the public may get their big idea, but doesn't seem to endorse it and no longer trusts this administration to manage it. And one other thing: fighting dirty with war intelligence is what got the White House in trouble in the first place. Kristol's advice just reminds the public that these guys were always playing politics first with our national security. And it just feeds Fitzgerald's revelations that the White House was involved at the very highest levels in a conspiracy of retribution against a war critic. By urging his minions to ramp up the attacks, Kristol just adds credibility to the substance of Fitzgerald's emerging findings...http://tinyurl.com/j7vle
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posted by Dan at 10:18 PM
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