[rollo tomasi]

"So Bush was willing to give in on Dem stuff to get stuff he wanted done."

Like I said Bush's persona was a liability as was his initial Iraq strategy of underestimating the insurgents capabilities.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Like I said Bush's persona was a liability as was his initial Iraq strategy of underestimating the insurgents capabilities.”

It wasn't popular here but I always thought it was political for him to try to keep the public unaware of what was really needed because of 2004 and 2006 elections, a bit like Johnson in the 1960s tried to keep that on low profile for as long as he could.

But naturally in the long run it backfired when Iraq killings were every day news because it became a huge mess, requiring the surge

In other words Dems are not the only ones with political motives,