Viet Iraq: Bush Tries a High-Risk History Lesson; Much Ado About Mr. Maliki; Clinton's Minuses May Become Pluses; PHOTO OP: 9:11 a.m., August 22, Riverside Mo.
Viet Iraq: Bush Tries a High-Risk History Lesson
It surprised even most of his supporters when President Bush compared the Iraq war to Vietnam in a speech. After all, he had shunned that analogy in the past, arguing that the two situations were vastly different and fearing, his advisers say, that he might encourage Americans to see Iraq as the quagmire that so many concluded Vietnam had become. But the president has also grown increasingly concerned about eroding public support for the war and felt he needed to "reframe" the debate in a dramatic way before Congress again considers war funding this fall. So he took a gamble and argued in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City, Mo., that the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1970s led to massacres, huge displacements of refugees, and other calamities in Southeast Asia. He predicted the same outcome if America removes its forces hastily from Iraq. A senior White House adviser told U.S. News that Bush wanted to broaden the "intellectual discussion" of Iraq by placing it in a wider historical context, and not necessarily "reopen the whole Vietnam debate." But reopen it he did, causing many antiwar Democrats to heap scorn on his history lesson. Vietnam was indeed a quagmire, they said. Still, Bush plans to give another history lesson this week. He's scheduled to tell an American Legion gathering in Reno, Nev., how a precipitous withdrawal would play havoc in the Middle East.
Much Ado About Mr. Maliki
Does he or doesn't he—support Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that is. President Bush started off last week telling a news conference that he felt "frustration" with the leadership in Baghdad because there has been so little political reform and reconciliation—which Bush's "surge" of U.S. troops was designed to foster this year. Bush also said it was up to the Iraqi people to decide whether to replace Maliki. When the media interpreted all this as Bush distancing himself from Maliki, Bush and his aides tried to walk his comments back. The following day, the president said Maliki is "a good guy, a good man with a difficult job." Bush clarified: "I support him." White House advisers used a familiar technique to explain what happened—they blamed the media. The reports of Bush's initial remarks were "misleading," a senior Bush aide says.
Clinton's Minuses May Become Pluses
As Hillary Clinton maintains her lead for the Democratic presidential nomination, Republican strategists are resurrecting a theory that was popular in GOP circles earlier this year—that she will energize conservatives who consider her a ruthless, unlikable, left-wing ideologue. "Her nomination would give us the best shot to keep the White House," says a former senior adviser to Ronald Reagan. If Clinton is the choice, he adds, the general-election campaign will be very rough. "It basically means, demonize the nominee," says a veteran GOP strategist. Of course, Clinton's supporters see her as the strongest contender, pointing to polls that have her defeating or tied with every potential GOP candidate. Her backers say she is really a pragmatic politician who has won over many conservatives in New York and has proved her likability and toughness in two successful Senate races there. Clinton partisans also fire a warning shot of their own: After eight tumultuous years in the White House as first lady and a key adviser to her husband, she knows how to fight back—and has some excellent attack strategists on her team.
PHOTO OP: 9:11 a.m., August 22, Riverside Mo.
On a swing through the Midwest, the president had breakfast with community leaders—"some of the area's finest citizens," he said—at the Corner Cafe. The talk covered "businesses and opportunities and sports and culture," Bush said, adding, "I hope you leave here with the sense that I'm upbeat about the future of this country."
This story appears in the September 3, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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