Newsweek: W.H. eager to move on from Katrina & refocus on TERRA

[Human Torch]

It’s the Enemy, Stupid
The White House seems eager to move on from Katrina and refocus Americans on the war against terror.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey
Newsweek
Updated: 2:25 p.m. MT Aug 30, 2006

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14589124/site/newsweek/



Aug. 30, 2006 - With the Hurricane Katrina anniversary behind it, the White House is moving quickly to shift the focus to a topic it thinks will play better for the GOP this fall. Thursday is scheduled to mark the start of yet another attempt by President Bush to frame the war in Iraq, and the war against Al Qaeda, in terms that might move his poll numbers in the right direction.

But is there anything he can say about the war that he hasn’t said before? The White House speechwriters will have plenty of opportunities: Thursday’s speech to the American Legion’s national convention is the start of a series that builds up to Bush’s address to the United Nations General Assembly in two weeks.

For Bush’s aides, the immediate goal is never about the poll numbers—not because they don’t follow them closely, but because they don’t want to be measured by the cold hard digits after one or two speeches. Instead, the president’s priority over the next two weeks is to re-focus attention on “the enemy,” to empathize with the American people about all the bad news on TV, and to set the entire debate in the wider context of a giant ideological struggle in the Middle East.

That may sound like a familiar mantra, but President Bush has never worried about repeating himself. In fact, he and his aides see repetition as a virtue—a chance to work phrases into the broader public consciousness, and ultimately move the polls and the political debate.

[Raine]

1. I'll bet they are

they don't like their ineptness staring them in the face and exposed for the World to see. :mad:

[opihimoimoi]

2. they are reduced to using dried turds for ammo as the enemies circle

closer for the kill.