[supercat]

Bush needed to get across the message that Saddam was harboring terrorist and sponsoring terrorism and that he was more vital to the war on terror than Osama bin Laden.

I hope Bush can sometime articulate that having lots of terrorists try to attack us in Iraq presents challenges, but also opportunities; it is certainly better than having them attack us here.

[christie]

It's better than that. Iraq is a magnet. We've drawn many many terrorist into Iraq where we we can fight them. This is not a smart strategy on the part of the terrorist, but brilliant on the part of the coalition. It's hard on Iraqis, it's hard on the perception of winning, but in the long run, we'll take more of them out. More will replace them, but it'll take time for them to regroup and the leadership will no longer find safe haven in Baghdad or Libya.

Maybe there are some security reasons why Bush is not articulating some of this, hard to tell. Or maybe there are some surprises to come and he doesn't want to show his hand. But, personally, I think he's been weak in explaining his case. There is a lot of ammunition he could use.