Washington – In the past five years, Americans have seen President Bush in many poses – tough, defiant, emotional. On Sunday night, in a rare Oval Office address, they saw another – humble.
A president loath to concede mistakes did so. A president often dismissive of his critics embraced their right to differ. A president whose patience is easily stretched seemed to ask for empathy from others for decisions gone wrong.
While there was no substantive shift regarding the war in Iraq during his prime- time speech, there were stylistic ones. He was seated at his desk and let his hands do a lot of talking. His tone was softer. He seemed to be targeting those who disagree with him rather than making sure the converted stayed that way.
To be sure, there also was the now-rote certitude about the justness of the war and the resolve needed for total victory.
It was also clear that the president is sticking to the notion that he is gambling his place in history on the bet that democracy in Iraq will remake the Middle East for the better.
And, many times, he used a negative to make a positive point. While admitting that intelligence had been faulty on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and taking responsibility for going to war under a false assumption, Bush said, “It was right to remove Saddam Hussein from power … and the world is better for it.”
To those who think the president’s strategy is creating more problems than it is solving, Bush said, “If you think the terrorists would become peaceful if only America would stop provoking them, then it might make sense to leave them alone. This is not the threat that I see.”
The speech stood in marked contrast to one he gave Saturday, during a rare live weekly radio address, in which he did not merely acknowledge but aggressively defended his decision to order domestic spying to fight terrorism. In that speech, he risked being seen as the ultimate Big Brother, not exactly in the Republican Party playbook that calls for a limited role for the federal government.
When Iraqis voted on their constitution in October, the administration enjoyed several triumphant weeks, only to see the insurgency eventually grow in its lethality. With legislative elections last week, the administration sees another opportunity to change the conversation in Iraq from body counts to vote counts on the path to democracy.
For all the uncharacteristic nuance that Bush offered Sunday, he also again showed a stark clarity when he said there were really only two options: “victory or defeat.”
Many were the times that Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon made the same arguments during Vietnam, saying that staying the course was the only option. But the largely successful Iraqi election process provided Bush with a more tangible platform to talk about the prospects in Iraq.
