Analysis: AP hates Bush, can't hide it

Analysis: Bush Drops Rosy Iraq Scenarios
What "rosy scenarios" you might ask. Ron Fournier doesn't say. This op-ed is aimed at people beyond the reach of logic or mere facts. This is meta-analysis of the latest opinion polls for people who've needed therapy since the 2000 election.

WASHINGTON - No more rosy scenarios. After watching his credibility and approval ratings crumble over the course of 2005, President Bush completed a rhetorical shift Sunday night by abandoning his everything-is-OK pitch to Americans and coming clean: He was wrong about the rationale for going to war in Iraq; he underestimated the dangers; the country has suffered "terrible loss"; and the bad news isn't over.

Even with his high-profile display of accountability — a step anxious Republican leaders had been demanding for weeks — Bush remained unyielding.

"To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor and I will not allow it," he said in a prime-time address, capping a series of five speeches designed to reverse a stunning political free-fall.

There is some evidence that the rhetorical shift has worked. Recent polls suggest that while a majority of Americans disapprove of Bush's performance, his job rating has increased a bit. Nearly six of every 10 Americans said the U.S. military should stay until Iraq is stabilized, which is Bush's position.

Notice the complete lack of military analysis, concern for Iraqis, or consideration of geo-politics. The entire op-ed is based on an appeal to fictional authority: opinion polls. This passes for thinking in the mainstream media. Pitiful? Certainly.

Then it gets worse, open cheerleading for those who randomly kill civilians.

Vice President Dick Cheney, the administration's chief cheerleader, went so far as to say last May that Iraqi insurgents were in the "last throes."

The happy talk didn't ring true to many Americans, who watched in horror as the U.S. death toll climbed above 2,000 and wondered why Bush refused to take time off from his summer vacation to meet with the mother of a slain soldier. Cindy Sheehan became the grim face of a budding anti-war movement.

Bush seemed out of touch, unable to grasp the concerns of people opposed to the war or even those who were starting to wonder about it.

This is the sort of editorializing which is necessary to keep the jihadis (and Democrats) in the game. Without positive news coverage when they kill children and then bomb the hospital to which the children are destined, the attacks have no tactical or strategic significance. Notice how numerology is employed: "2,000." Why is this a magic number? It must be three zeros. In any historical context this is a very low number of killed in a large military operation with a persistent foreign imperialist jihad. Most of the killed have come after Saddam Hussein was toppled.

So what have we learned from this puff piece? AP, and Ron Fournier in particular, hates Bush. Lunatic Cindy Sheehan (pals around with George Galloway and Al Sadr representatives) is a credible analyist in Ron Fournier's mind. Anyone who considers anything but the latest opinion poll when analyzing foreign policy is wasting time.

Read the whole thing for the overall "I HATE BUSH" effect.