Time: Operation Oprah (Condi on Oprah, Powell on Letterman, etc.)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031006-490597,00.html

Wondering how the president plans to spend the $87 billion he asked for to rebuild Iraq? You could have tuned in to David Letterman last week to hear Colin Powell try to ease the country's sticker shock. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will soon be appearing on Oprah to do a version of the same. The Administration's plan to bypass the traditional media has got so creative that someone in the White House suggested the Secretary of Defense should appear on the Imus in the Morning radio show. Donald Rumsfeld declined.

Skirting the newspapers makes sense for a President who last week reminded us in a Fox TV interview that he doesn't really read them. It was a good week not to. Bush's approval ratings fell to the lowest point of his presidency. His trip to the U.N. was panned for winning no new support. On Capitol Hill, Administration officials were being pounded for faulty postwar planning and facing charges from Democrats that they still weren't coming clean about the costs. Conservative Republicans were in their own mini-revolt over spending on prisons and post offices in Iraq that they would like to see here. Even the President's beloved Texas Rangers are in last place.

This is very far from where the Bush campaign wants to be 14 months before the election. "We knew it would be close," says one top adviser, "but this is going to be an ugly fall." The White House was aware a downturn was coming—Bush aides have predicted since April that the President could not sustain his high approval ratings—but they didn't expect to find themselves on the defensive about the war to topple Saddam with so few options to fight back. Perceptions about the chaos in Iraq are out of Bush's control, determined by events on the ground and resistant to the black-and-white rhetoric and aura of command that once served him so well. And the President's rock-solid base—in Washington and around the country—may be getting a little restless.

On the Hill, some conservatives are pushing to strip the $20 billion the President has asked Congress to pony up for Iraq reconstruction, and to restructure it as loans. "Why should we give all this money to a country that's so rich in minerals?" Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California conservative and staunch Bush ally, asked a closed meeting of House Republicans last week. At the same time, the 10 Democratic presidential hopefuls are landing blows on national security, an issue that was supposed to be unavailable to the opposition. And the addition of General Wesley Clark only gives the Democrats more credibility on this terrain. Though the g.o.p. foot soldiers support George W. Bush with a fervor not seen since Ronald Reagan's presidency—the campaign has raised close to $80 million so far—they are calling on the White House to start fighting back. "It's 10 to 1," says a Bush adviser who has urged the campaign to go on the offensive, "and the one isn't even in the game. It's a problem of sheer tonnage."

<snip>

And in early October the Bush team will launch a blog to chronicle the campaign online.

[wryter2000]

1. Huh?

"This is going to be an ugly fall" from a "top adviser." :wtf: What kind of strategy is this? Lowered expectations?

[realFedUp]

2. The Condi and Colin Shows this morning

were unimpressive. Why can't they admit that the White
House is lying, both about the WMD's and who outed
Joe Wilson's wife?

This administration needs AA meetings held
inside the Oval office.

Wonder how Oprah likes getting used by Republicans?

[The Zanti Regent]

3. She acts like one

Remember how she hugged Bush and don't forget the ass-kiss fest with Arnold.

Oprah is as fair and balanced as Fox.