Here's a couple of examples. David Frum, a former speechwriter for president Bush who is said to have come up with the phrase "axis of evil," thinks Bush just isn't giving good enough speeches.
By now it should be clear that President Bush's words on the subject of Iraq have ceased connecting with the American public. His speech yesterday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars is the latest - and one of the most serious to date - manifestations of the problem. The polls tell us that the American public is losing heart. A substantial majority (56%) now say that the war is going either "very badly" or "moderately badly." More than 50% now regard the war as a mistake. One-third want an immediate and total withdrawal. Maybe most fatefully: a plurality now say that they believe that the president deliberately misled the country into war.
And why would this be? I mean, it couldn't be that the war is going badly, and was a mistake that we should get out of as soon as humanly possible, and that the president did lie to us about, now could it?
Nah. Must be a PR problem.
Again and again during the Bush presidency - and yesterday most recently - the president will agree to give what is advertised in advance as a major speech. An important venue will be chosen. A crowd of thousands will be gathered. The networks will all be invited. And after these elaborate preparations, the president says ... nothing that he has not said a hundred times before.
What an unbelivable coincidence. The thing that can save Bush's war, and probably his presidency, just happens to be a skill Frum belives he has. I mean, it couldn't be that Bush has nothing to say he hasn't said a hundred times before, could it?
ETA: Michael Crowley, guest-blogging for Joshua Micah Marshall in Talking Points Memo, observes:
when even erstwhile allies like David Frum are complaining that "President Bush's words on the subject of Iraq have ceased connecting with the American public," it's hard to see how repeating the same old soundbites, even with precise casualty figures empathetically thrown in, will do the trick.
P.S. Note Frum's comment that he's been flooded with emails -- from National Review readers, remember -- agreeing with him. Republicans are nearing a state of panic over Iraq.
Meanwhile, Town Hall columnist Tony Blankley thinks it's those darn generals' fault:
It is hard to argue that the war is going optimally, and the administration argument that more troops wouldn't help is, at the least, counterintuitive. The president says he is sending as many troops as the generals ask for -- which is true. But recently, retired generals, and others, are saying that they are afraid to ask for more. If that is true, it is rather unheroic of the generals not to give the president the unvarnished truth of what is needed.
Yes, because we all know how well this president takes unvarnished truth. That's why he's attended so many military funerals. That's why he takes the issue of sending troops into battle so seriously, and would never, ever think there was anything funny about it. That's how we know, in fact, we went to war for good and sufficent reason--because of this president's ability to look the truth right in the eye and not blink.
If the unvarnished truth ever touched George W. Bush's little toe, he'd shrivel up into a little ball of skin and die.
Blankley finishes with a truly touching show of belief in his president:
The president rightly says that Iraq is currently the central front on the war on terror.
Sure...now.
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