Over at Red State, there’s an interesting post meant to anticipate and decry lefty partisan responses to Bush’s speech tomorrow that might feature an announcement concerning the withdrawal of some U.S. troops in Iraq. It’s interesting because all it really does is capture the no-win situation Bush has put himself in with this Iraq war.

So there you have it. Tomorrow night Bush will either announce the conditions are being met that will allow a withdrawal of some American forces from Iraq in which case he will finally have bowed to the realism of Biden and Murtha… or he will not announce anything that can be roughly attributed as laying the groundwork for a US withdrawal in which case Bush is still in the thrall of the neo-cons and is too stubborn to see that his party is deserting him over Iraq… or he will announce something that can be interpreted as portending US troops withdrawals but he will not pose the answer to a raft of thorny issues associated with the withdrawal in which case Bush is succumbing to plans of arch-puppetmeister Karl Rove and just making a hollow political gesture aimed at salvaging 2006 for the Republicans.

That’s all true, no? But what’s more um, what’s the word? pleasurable? amusing? funny? are the comments the red staters are generating. Let’s take a gander.

“Now we know what Murtha was trying to do

The Left will portray success as failure, and consider the triumphant return of our troops as an ignominious retreat. And they will claim credit for making it happen. The timing of the Murtha adventure makes the strategy clear. ”

“The Right

Was sayin this when it was thought that Murtha and Pelosi had staged their event in anticipation of the President’s upcoming speech.
We’ve always known there is no low the Libs won’t stoop to to damage the President (and any collateral damage, the troops, Iraq, etc be damned), this is just another example ”

“The rotten part…

…is that their megaphones are bigger than ours. They will have a certain amount of success with this, if only because it’s approximately true that “more Americans get their news from network television than from any other source.”

“No doubt he means Murtha

I have been suspecting for a while (and this thread confirms my suspicions) that the current Dem brouhaha over bringing the troops home was in anticipation that Bush would be announcing troop drawdowns. Now, the Dems can claim credit for ‘pressuring the White House into doing the right thing’ on Iraq. “

Man, it’s amazing how those feckless, out-of-touch, latte-sipping Dems got so fucking clever all of a sudden isn’t it? I wonder what changed. Not really. I don’t care. Because finally we are back to our old tricks of duping the American people dear friends! We’ve had a rough six years, but clearly we are back in the saddle. Have your driver wax the limo, because tonight we celebrate with champagne and dreams of how undermining the war effort for partisan gain will give us a chance to bring blowjobs back to the oval office! Haha suck it Karl Rove. You’re no evil genius.

Meanwhile old Jeff G. is singing a slightly different tune.

“But what will be most clear is that control of the narrative by way of the legacy media is still the most important tool in a wealthy representative republic whose citizens are on the whole disengaged from politics and tend to follow stories only in soundbite format.

Such an information ethosâ€â€?soundbite politics and a legacy media increasingly willing to follow it’s own advocacy politics (however unconsciously)â€â€?helps Democrats, who are the party of targeted carping, bloc-voting identity politics, and big-ticket, feel-good promises that are almost always fiscally unworkable and (when they come from the left base of the party) socially damaging in the long term.”

Something peculiar about this. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Hmm. Oh yeah, that whole thing about how the media, however unconsciously, helps Democrats. I don’t want to go on a “so called liberal media” rant. But being as generous as possible, that sword has cut different ways at different times. But if you’re president doesn’t control the narrative, that’s his problem. That’s the chief advantage of being fucking president: having the biggest fucking bullhorn. But whatever. I’d imagine the Dems would have gotten more out of this media “help” the last few years were it true.

Anyway, at some point down the line, it might be worth delving more into the longterm political mistake of invading Iraq. Bush, like Reagan, could have gotten away with just about anything if he hadn’t done that. The American people don’t seem to care what their politicians actually do as long as those politicians don’t give them a reason to think about them.