Editorial
See other Editorial ArticlesTitle: Not So Curious George
Source:
St. Louis Dispatch
URL Source: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne ... 6862572440004E9A0?OpenDocument
Published: Dec 19, 2006
Author: Editorial
Post Date: 2006-12-19 18:38:28 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 20
Not-so-curious George
Thursday, Dec. 14 2006
This has been a remarkable week in the history of the American presidency: The
formidable apparatus of the White House Communications Office was rolled out
for the signal purpose of ballyhooing that the President of the United States
is actually listening to other people.
Has there been any other time in American history where the president's staff
felt obliged to stress that the boss was so engaged? Did John Hay ever have to
load President Lincoln into a buggy for a trip to Foggy Bottom so the public
would know he was talking with Secretary of State William Seward? Did Franklin
Roosevelt's "brain trust" have to arrange the seating, putting the guy they
wanted the president to pay attention to directly across from him?
Not since 1974, when White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig was carefully
choreographing Richard M. Nixon's decision to resign, have we seen such a
spectacle as this week's George W. Bush "listening tour." The president's
staff, led by Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, orchestrated a week's worth of
meetings and events designed to convince the American public that the boss has
opened his famously closed mind on the subject of the Iraq War.
Whether Mr. Bush is, in fact, listening is impossible to tell. The fruits of
the listening tour — "a new way forward in Iraq," in the president's words —
won't be seen until January. Before the week started, the White House had been
aiming for a speech before Christmas; apparently all that listening has been
taxing.
The impetus for the listening tour was the release last week of the bi-partisan
Iraq Study Group's 79 recommendations for policy and goal changes, which
coincided with a CBS poll that said only 21 percent of the public shares the
president's "stay-the-course" policies in Iraq. This is roughly the same
percentage of the public that, in another poll, said it believes crop circles
are caused by UFOs.
Anticipating the president's lukewarm reaction to the report, Mr. Bolten moved
quickly to create at least the illusion that the president was open to new
ideas. TV cameras showed a presidential motorcade Monday morning traveling the
few blocks to the State Department, where he met with Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice.
Monday afternoon the president met with military and policy experts; Newsweek
reports that Mr. Bolten arranged the seating so that the most outspoken experts
were directly across from the president. Tuesday he met by teleconference with
military leaders and State Department officials in Iraq and with the Iraqi vice
president. Wednesday brought a trip to the Pentagon, where Mr. Bush met with
more military leaders.
The itinerary as well as the guest list left something to be desired. Was there
anything Ms. Rice could say in her office that she hadn't said in six years as
a member of the president's foreign policy team? Outgoing Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney sat in on at least one session,
thus ensuring that the president would continue to be exposed to their keen
insights. And all the generals who were consulted are trained to salute and
follow orders; they're not likely to say they can't complete any mission.
In short, the president exposed himself to very little on this "listening tour"
that might challenge his current viewpoint or prove helpful. He didn't talk
with the scholars, journalists and policy experts who met with the Iraq Study
Group, nor did he talk to independent-minded junior officers who've been out at
the sharp end of the stick.
Perhaps this is understandable. It's hard enough to get this president to
listen at all, much less listen to things he doesn't want to hear. This is how
we got into Iraq, not how we get out.
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