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Down the memory hole "Course" CorrectionBy Rick Horowitz A bit of pity, please, for the White House and its leading occupant. You might have thought that, with the most sophisticated communications-and-spin machine known to man at his disposal, the president would hardly ever be in danger of being misinterpreted -- but misinterpreted is exactly what the White House says he's been. Frequently. Maybe even constantly. So they're changing course. About "Stay the course." You heard the news, right? This president, this White House, this administration will no longer use the phrase "Stay the course" to describe its policy for Iraq. Not only that, but this president, this White House, this administration are now busily denying that "Stay the course" has even been its policy for Iraq.
If you need a minute to laugh yourself senseless... "He stopped using it," Tony Snow explained on Monday. "It left the wrong impression about what was going on." The "wrong" impression being that George W. Bush was something less than flexible in figuring a way out of the gigantic mess he'd gotten us into. Needless to say, the White House spokesman saw things a bit differently. "What you have is not 'Stay the course' but in fact a study in constant motion by the administration and by the Iraqi government." "A study in constant motion." Of course, so is spinning your wheels. Anyway, Tony's Poetry Hour didn't stop there. He also ventured the picturesque thought that, while the president is "determined not to leave Iraq short of victory," he "also understands that it's important to capture the dynamism of the efforts that have been ongoing to try to make Iraq more secure." So that's what it's been -- "dynamism"! (Does that have anything to do with "dynamite"?) Meanwhile, in another part of town... Presidential counselor Dan Bartlett was telling CBS News that the administration's Iraq policy has "never been a 'Stay-the-course' strategy." Or to be more precise about it, that the administration's Iraq policy has "never been a 'Stay-the-course' strategy" with officials "sitting there with our heads in the sand." That's different, I guess, from a "Stay-the-course" strategy with officials sitting there with their heads up their -- But don't take Dan Bartlett's word for it. Because now we also have the word of the Commander in Chief himself. That's right: Even the president has weighed in on the question of how to describe the president's strategy. And here's what George Bush said to George Stephanopoulos: "We've never been 'Stay the course,' George." Do not adjust your TV set. There is nothing wrong with your TV set. All those video clips you remember seeing? The president promising to "Stay the course" and urging people to "Stay the course" and attacking critics for not wanting to "Stay the course" the way he wants to "Stay the course"? Never mind. Never happened. Does he think we're all idiots? Or do the tumbling poll numbers and collapsing election predictions have him in such a panic that he can't even remember what he said? Or doesn't he care anymore that what he now insists is true can so easily be proved untrue? "We've never been 'Stay the course,' George." Which, in the annals of presidential feet in presidential mouths, is destined to take its place right alongside "Brownie, you're doin' a heckuva job." The problem with "Stay the course" isn't that people misunderstood it. The problem is that they understand it all too well. Posted 10/25/06.
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Rick Horowitz
