Cuckoo B quizzed aides about TV show, "Over There"

[Rose Siding]

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The art-imitates-real-life idea is breaking new ground in both TV and politics, posing a curious question for President Bush and his aides: could "Over There" affect the already-fragile poll numbers on Iraq? According to one senior Bush aide, the president has voiced a strong interest in the series but hasn’t yet seen it for himself. Bush quizzed his aides last week about how the show was produced and how faithful it was to the conflict. “Does it really depict what is going on? Do you get a sense of it?” Bush asked. In fact, just a handful of senior aides have seen the show and report it to be “riveting” and “pretty vivid.” But the senior aide says, “We don’t have an official opinion yet. I don’t think enough people have seen it.”

You can understand why Bush’s aides would be unsure of the show. While the White House likes to honor the troops in Iraq, it remains uneasy about other institutions speaking for those same troops. For much of the last year, the president has come under intense pressure from conservative Republicans, especially those representing military districts, to outline more clearly the path to success in—and withdrawal from—Iraq. That nervousness turns up time and again in the polls. According to the latest Gallup poll, 53 percent of Americans say the war was not a mistake, yet the same number believes that U.S. forces either can’t win or won’t win. Those numbers vary with the precise wording of the polls. When Gallup asked last month whether the war was worth it, that same number—53 per cent—said no. It’s obviously way too early to tell if the graphic drama of “Over There” will tilt that fine balance one way or another.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8816222/site/newsweek/