"Bush to compare Iraqis to America's founders"

You talk to Republicans at Christmas parties, they think [the president] still has the makings of Reagan. There's still great promise in this administration.... If you talk to his friends, the president has not changed. They talk about a sort of Zen-like quality that he has.... They thought they were going to have to buck him up for Christmas. He was fine. He was reading military history, taking comfort in what happened to other commanders in chief who were underestimated in their time.

If he's right, then the founding of this country is a lot more interesting that what I was taught as a wee tyke.

hmmm, funny that.

this isn't the first time he's brought up imagery from the American Revolution, is it? i'm guessing that they'll skip the whole "we woulda been fucked had it not been for Rochambeau and French troops, guns, ammo, etc" thing that usually gets ignored when politicos address this.

"What you will see more of next year is the president going back to the basics -- winning the war and growing the economy and creating jobs," White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy said.

"The president certainly spent the last week doing that and will do so next year. He is going to go back to the basics."

They even quote Gary Bauer!

The only decent damage control he could achieve right now would be through a genuine press conference, without handpicked attendees... but I don't think his handlers would allow that now. He's too zen-like.

"The president certainly spent the last week doing that and will do so next year. He is going to go back to the basics."

He spent the last week doing all of that? Wtf was he doing the week before? Going "back to basics"? How do people even talk like that? Is he gonna call Rick Rubin or something? The White House, Unplugged? But I guarantee a lot of the punditocracy will eat it up and will spend the next two weeks predicting great things for W in the year ahead.

And then there'll be a lot of shit about gay marriage and terrorist threats and the Republicans will add seats in the House and only lose one or two in the Senate. 2006 isn't gonna be a good year.

I don't often indulge in my penchant for Dubya time-travel adventure stories, but today might just be the day.

and another 150,000 just wish they were.

They mentioned something about it on the radio this morning, about how Frank talks about "the plan for Victory" that was published. Apparently, the plan posted online wasn't actually anything followed by or created in the Dept of Defense, but the product of some Duke polisci prof. This same prof has also talked about how the people will support any loss of life in a war as long as they think Victory is in sight, which account for that word popping up several dozen time in any Dubya appearance.

I'm still trying to find confirmation of this bit, tho.

The mind boggles, and I mean that sincerely.

yeah, there was a front page story about the duke prof in the times about a week before, probably easier to search on.

1) the guy's name is Peter D. Feaver. He's now a NSC advisor. Great.

2) DEMOCRATS KEEP SHIFTING TOWARDS SURRENDER

coupled with this delightful cartoon:

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/Cartoons/11-18-2005.gif

from Editor & Publisher, since the original article is now behind the NYT paywall.

Funny how they found out who wrote the plan by digging around in Adobe Acrobat...

Also: racial puppetry in right-wing comics

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/14/bush.iraq/index.html