Gawd, you're a slippery little guy, John. Or forgetful.
Oh, I'm not arguing they failed to play the political game well. Rove obviously did that. And, for the moment, at least, appears to be quite good at that. I'm arguing they bumbled the diplomacy.
We were discussing PR, you said that the Bushies did a poor job of it, then I showed you the poll results, forcing you to admit the political game has been played well by 43, and now it's the diplomacy he's bungled?
For starters, Bush has wisely made it quite clear that the diplomacy, on this issue, is ultimately irrelevant to him. How can he have bungled a diplomatic process he's ultimately not worried about? It's not as if he has expended a lot of effort on the issue.
But even then, I would argue in response to your slippery side-step that the diplomacy has been OK. We've got Saudi Arabia on board, Qatar on board, Jordan probably on board, the Brits heartily supporting us, Kuwait onboard, Egypt silent, etc, etc.
Who cares about the French and the Germans? The Russian position is understandable on the basis of economics. These three are ultimately irrelevant to the effort, so why expend a lot of political capital on them? The ones who matter are the locals, and they are not objecting.
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