Yesterday, I heard the Decider-in-Chief describing the status of "the way forward" in Iraq. This is not to be confused with Ford Motor Company's "Way Forward." Or maybe it is.
Last January, in what sounded a lot like a plan for withdrawal, Ford announced its intention to cut at least 25,000 jobs, shutter 14 plants and — if that weren't forward enough — build a stronger Mercury brand. Then it brought in a new boss who didn't yet own a Ford product. The only thing missing was bilateral talks with Kia.
The New Yorker's Steve Coll captured the tenor of the country's way forward, as interpreted by George Bush’s spokesman, Tony Snow:
The President, he said, “is moving toward a decision on how to move forward.” In a tone of voice that was not particularly seasonal, he continued:
I know a lot of you have been curious about when he would be announcing or talking about the way forward. That is not going to happen until the new year. We do not know when, so I can’t give you a date, I can’t give you a time, I can’t give you a place, I can’t give you the way in which it will happen.
According to the latest polls, seven out of ten Americans disapprove of Bush’s performance regarding Iraq. For them, Snow offered a few words of reassurance. “The most important thing,” he said, “is that the President continues to be engaged in the business of talking about the way forward.”
In other words, our way forward so far consists of not setting a date about not setting a date.
The President yesterday was talking about this business of being engaged in the business of talking, but he sounded less like his standard petulant over-ar-tic-ulator and more like he was auditioning for a part in Lonesome Dove: "Ahm own tock tuh Congurse," which, in the more diplomatic transcriptions of the major news services, would be rendered as "I am going to talk to Congress."
When the President reverts to Texican, it's a sure sign of frustration with the niceties, and he's moving from impatient executive to pissed off tough guy. We'll have our first clue how he really feels when he finally pronounces his way forward. Or pernounces it.
