Reality bites

By Creature

The optimistic president better take another magic ride on his optimistic carpet because the mood in the White House is starting to seem anything but optimistic. Read on, it's about Iraq, and it's about the president's last ditch rhetorical effort to keep the people of the United States on the GOP side of the not so optimistic fence.

Of all the words that President Bush used at his news conference this week to defend his policies in Iraq, the one that did not pass his lips was "progress." [...]

The shifting rhetoric reflected a broader pessimism that has reached into even some of the most optimistic corners of the administration -- a sense that the Iraq venture has taken a dark turn and will not be resolved anytime soon. Bush advisers once believed that if they met certain benchmarks, such as building a constitutional democracy and training a new Iraqi army, the war would be won. Now they believe they have more or less met those goals, yet the war rages on.

So much for creating their own reality.

The Washington Post has more.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)