SF Chronicle: Bush sells war to skeptical public; support falling

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Bush sells war to skeptical public
With support falling, administration goes on offensive

Nina J. Easton, Susan Milligan, Boston Globe

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/23/MNGE0EBPM71.DTL

Washington -- Facing sagging public opinion polls and an increasingly spirited antiwar movement, the Bush administration and its allies began this week a broad public relations offensive, with a presidential defense of the war -- including an acknowledgement of the conflict's mounting death toll -- and a caravan of supportive military families carrying their message to the Bush ranch in Texas.

In an address to the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Salt Lake City on Monday, President Bush resisted calls for an early withdrawal. He noted that each of the 1,864 U.S. casualties in Iraq and the 223 in Afghanistan "left grieving families and loved ones back home. ... We owe them something. We will finish the task that they gave their lives for."

Seven hundred miles away, a conservative group called Move America Forward began a bus and car caravan in Northern California under the banner "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" -- a reference to Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who became the face of the anti-war movement after planting herself outside Bush's Crawford ranch to protest the death of her son.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is increasing media access to soldiers in the field in an attempt to highlight their successes in Iraq. Administration officials fear that the deadly insurgency and reports of U.S. deaths have overshadowed the progress made on the ground. "I think over the long haul public support is absolutely critical to the success of military operations," said Victoria Clarke, who was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's chief media adviser until the summer of 2003. "To get and keep that kind of support people need a comprehensive view of what the military is doing: the good stuff, the bad stuff, and the in-between stuff."

[Mich Otter]

1. The more Bush talks about the invasion, the less support he will have

Watch as Bush's poll numbers continue to drop when he goes out to talk to his faithful.

[calimary]

2. Well, that tactic sure worked wonders for him on Social Security, 'eh?

Keep talking, george. Keep digging.

[tanyev]

3. He's the man with the fecal touch.

[magellan]

4. Hmmm

"...the Pentagon is increasing media access to soldiers in the field in an attempt to highlight their successes in Iraq."

Would that be unrestricted access, or the kind of access the general public has to Bush** (i.e. pre-screened for loyalty)?

[leftylady]

5. The More he Talks the Worse He Sounds

He just keeps grasping for straws out there - and it is painfully obvious.