Talking Up Iraq at Home ...

By Mike Allen, Massimo Calabresi

Stung by an ornery public and exasperated Republican law- makers, the White House is preparing a blitz of TV-friendly events to show that George W. Bush knows what he's doing in Iraq, and to define achievable terms for victory. The drive started last week at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he gave the first of four big speeches leading up to Iraq's Dec. 15 elections. Bush choked up as he read a letter found on the laptop of fallen Marine Corporal Jeff Starr: "If you are reading this, then I've died in Iraq ... I don't regret going." Despite the resolute rhetoric--and a backdrop declaring PLAN FOR VICTORY--the address signaled an incremental withdrawal of troops before the 2006 U.S. midterm elections. Likewise, the release last week of a 35-page report, National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, aimed to portray Bush as acting deliberately rather than buckling to critics, who carped that the plan had arrived a few years late.

At a congressional retreat in Maryland the next day, G.O.P. leaders--eager to share blame for the party's woes--lit into White House aides, charging that members of Congress have to trek to Iraq to hear about progress there and that the Administration has been AWOL in touting the economy. Bush aides admitted they have been behind the eight ball, partly because of Hurricane Katrina, and detailed a blueprint for better communications. Bush dashed into the Rose Garden late last week to declare that the economy "continues to gain strength and momentum." The event had been thrown together so quickly that the usual velvet ropes were not set up to pen back journalists. "We're trying the trusting method," an aide joked. Merry glasnost.