Does the reporter realize what he's really saying here? "It was billed" means simply that the media have declared this a crisis, and "you'd never know it" means that Bush hasn't gone along like, oh, like < media gush > everybody who's anybody has. < /gush > They haven't stopped there. Since the media - I mean the Democratic party - victory in the polls they've been variously describing Iraq as a civil war or an outright loss, a verdict that must mystify the troops who are actually there.
I get the impression the media have decided that the upshot of the election is that they really can declare their own reality and make it stick. They're in for a real disappointment.