Kabuki at Camp Cupcake
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, September 4, 2007; 2:36 PM

What exactly was President Bush up to yesterday, making a "surprise visit" to a huge American air base in Iraq, praising the ostensible progress there and hinting at a troop reduction if things keep going so well?

One answer lies in the remarkably forthright interviews Bush gave author Robert Draper for a new book coming out today. As Jim Rutenberg wrote in Sunday's New York Times, Bush earlier this year explained his Iraq strategy to Draper this way: "I'm playing for October-November." Writes Rutenberg: "That is when he hopes the Iraq troop increase will finally show enough results to help him achieve the central goal of his remaining time in office: 'To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence,' and, he said later, 'stay longer.'

And the president is now aware that the only way to get attention is to make a dramatic move. "'I've been here too long,' Mr. Bush said, according to Mr. Draper. 'Every time I start painting a rosy picture, it gets criticized and then it doesn't make it on the news.'"

In other words: Bush is gaming the media -- and playing for time.

In November it will be a year since the American people voted out a Republican Congress in a display of anti-war sentiment. And in November 2008, there'll be a new president-elect -- and Bush will be well on his way to a new life where he won't have to worry about such things anymore....[Open in new window]