[ohioWfan]

And if Rove and Bush had fought back, would that have stopped the left's truckloads of lying garbage from controlling public opinion?

There's where the debate is, Lakeshark.

President Bush defended his Iraq strategy in countless speeches and statements, but it was only heard by those of us who were looking and listening.

While it is definitely arguable that Bush should have fought back harder (I certainly wanted him to), I don't think that his doing so would have overcome the media-culture-political leftists' incessant, screaming lies.

Perhaps it really was best for him to just stay strong and WIN the war, and let history be the judge. I'm pretty sure that's what he still thinks.

[Lakeshark]

This may be a moot point, because he simply didn't respond very well, and we'll never know.

But if we take Reagan as example, the left and the media did the same garbage truck dumping on him, and the Reagan approach worked a whole lot better than the new tone approach, wouldn't you agree?