Flit

PITHY Everything in the Bush

PITHY

Everything in the Bush presidency is designed to avoid reliving the mistakes of Good Ol' 41 (that moniker makes the first President Bush sound like an old-time steam locomotive) who won the Gulf War too early to distract the voters from a sputtering economy.

--Walt Shapiro, in Slate. He's right, you know. An Iraq war in February involving ground troops is now impossible... we're still sitting at only 180,000 of the 250,000 needed deployed or en route, with no sign of movement from the 101st or the European troops yet... and March may be less preferable to the Bush coterie than September, for the re-election reasons Shapiro outlines.

Signs still point to Bush turning up the burner another couple degrees, and then waiting to see what effect that has, in his speech tonight. There's still some little wiggle room left before the tipping point comes, and the Tuchmanesque momentum down the hill towards war takes over. The big question is, in Bush's mind is there one month of wiggle room left, or seven?