Bush Does It Again

I'm listening to Fox News right now regarding President Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad to meet with FREELY ELECTED Iraqi president Maliki. This is a breathtaking historic moment. Nobody knew but just a few people close to the President and a few hand picked reporters (bet Helen Thomas wasn't one of them...). God Bless President Bush, and keep him safe.

JASmius adds: Guess that means he left the turkey at home this time.

Cap'n Ed reads between the lines:

Domestically, it sends another clear message. The Bush Administration has come under pressure to back away from Iraq, to declare victory with the death of Zarqawi especially and to retreat from the mission of creating a self-sufficient security force. This visit shows that Bush has no intention of doing a cut-and-run, and that he's willing to put himself in the same theater as his soldiers and Marines in order to secure a democratic future in Iraq.

That's what's known in Texas as a "middle finger salute" to his "critics." Frankly, I was wondering if he still had it in him.

Gotta love the WaPo spin on it:

Bush had summoned his senior advisers to Camp David this week to outline new ways to help the fledgling government. Administration officials see the success of the new government as their last best hope to stabilize the situation in Iraq.

What puerile melodramatics. What's their hurry? Sheesh, it took four and seven years, respectively, to rehabilitate Germany and Japan after World War II, and without the impetus of the burgeoning Cold War it probably would have been even longer. Iraq has gone from Saddamite hellhole to constitutional democracy in under three years despite two enemy powers on its borders attempting everything short of overt invasion to destabilize the process. I'd say that's pretty darn brisk.

But the Extreme Media harbor no lofty expectations of reconstruction rapidity. They just want to Vietnamize Operation Iraqi Freedom and the larger GWOT by whatever means necessary. And Dubya just pushed it back at them - again.

UPDATE: And here's the standard Bushophobe reaction:

What a patriot! Maybe he's there to fulfill his patriotic duty to the country; after all, he never completed his military service in the National Guard years ago. Dan Rather was right!!

I hope Bush is on the losing end of an IED.

And Hugh thinks al Qaeda is doing "a collective Yosemite Sam"....? (h/t Double-H)