A day in the life of President Bush (1/7/07): news & photos

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: Rarely does a weekend go by when there is no news as to where the President spent the weekend, but this is such a weekend. There almost seems to be a palpable if metaphorical holding of breath in the American news media and body politic as they await President Bush's speech on Iraq this week. No date or location for the speech has been announced by the White House press office.

The first family received some good news today, as former President George H.W. Bush left the hospital after his successful 2nd hip replacement.

In the meantime, in a news report published yesterday, a recent Gallup poll ranks the 50 people Americans believe are most admired in the world. Topping the list is none other than the man the media (and many FReepers) keeps telling us is practically the most unpopular president in the history of the world, George W. Bush.

Savvy Dose readers might wish to ponder this question: How can President Bush be the man Americans think is the most admired person in the world, while his domestic poll numbers hover near the mid-to-high 30's?

By the way, the fact that President Bush came out on top in this poll is made even more remarkable by the fact that it's results skewed way Left. Finishing in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place (ahead of the Rev. Billy Graham) were Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama. Go figure.

As for the most admired women, the top five were Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush and Margaret Thatcher, in that order.

Survey results were based on telephone interviews with 1,010 adults, conducted Dec. 11-14, 2006.

THE WEEK AHEAD: On a day and at a location yet to be announced, next week President Bush is expected to give his much-anticipated speech on Iraq policy.

The next three events are included because the President and/or other administration officials usually address these meetings:

Wolfstar:
Thank you for re-posting the most poignant section of the President's first Inaugural Address . . . It is certainly good for us to remember that the President is a man of faith who truly understands that ". . . an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."

MUST READ . . .

The President's WOT plan continues to fall into place:

ADMIRAL FALLON

EYEING IRAN
WHY W'S TAPPING ADMIRAL TO HEAD CENTRAL COMMAND
By Ralph Peters

January 6, 2007 -- WORD that Adm. William Fallon will move laterally from our Pacific Command to take charge of Central Command - responsible for the Middle East - while two ground wars rage in the region baffled the media.

Why put a swabbie in charge of grunt operations?

There's a one-word answer: Iran.

[NOTE: Even while taking his obligatory shot at the Bush 'administration' (read Rumsefld), Peters has to admit the following: "(President) Bush continues to have a much-underrated strategic vision"!]
You can read the rest of this commentary at

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01062007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/eyeing_iran_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm

LT GENERAL PATRAEUS

I Am A Fan Of David Petraeus
By Pejman Yousefzadeh

I mentioned yesterday that I was glad to find out that David Petraeus would be the new senior commander in Iraq. A few articles will demonstrate why I am happy about this.

Let's start with the fact that Petraeus is both smart and tough. Consider this story (read on):

The son of a Dutch sea captain, Petraeus began his military career at West Point. And he is no ordinary general. He has a Ph.D. in history from Princeton. His thesis topic: The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam.

He also recently coauthored an Army manual on counterinsurgency operations. Petraeus and other officers say the Army collectively forgot how to fight an insurgency after Vietnam.

[. . .]

Once Baghdad fell, the 101st was dispatched to Mosul in northern Iraq, where Petraeus won praise for his work. He provided security, listened to tribal and religious leaders and focused on the economy, reopening factories and businesses.

In October 2003, Petraeus described the effort this way: "This is a race. This is a race to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. And there are other people in this race. And they're not just trying to beat us to the finish line. In some cases, they want to kill us."

Retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, a close friend, says Petraeus understands how to work with a local population and encourage them to break with insurgents. That's the essence of what the military calls counterinsurgency. He says Petraeus is the perfect choice for the job.

That's the "smart" part. Here's the "tough":

During a training exercise, Keane recalls, an accidental rifle shot hit Petraeus in the chest. Keane held his hand as he was flown to a nearby hospital. A surgeon named Bill Frist, who would later become Senate Majority Leader, was pulled off a golf course to treat him.

A few days after surgery, Petraeus demanded to be released. A doctor told him that it was impossible to release him so soon after major surgery. According to Kaine, Petraeus told the doctor to take out the tubes and then got down on the floor and did 50 pushups. The hospital sent him home.

Petraeus's almost fanatical devotion to physical fitness is legendary. He often challenges men less than half his age to contests. One story is that a young special forces soldier asked him how many push-ups he could do. "One more than you," replied Petraeus, who immediately proved it.

You have to love an attitude like that. And here is another story showing that the new commander has the right stuff:

I have an image of David Petraeus burned in my mind. It was just days after Baghdad had fallen to American forces, and Petraeus, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division, had joined other leaders of the division at a memorial service for two soldiers who had just been killed.

Before the service, I had overheard the battalion sergeant major reprimand a noncommissioned officer who had been shaken deeply by the deaths. His face was reddened with emotion, and that reaction, the sergeant major told him, was unacceptable. "Your soldiers need to see a stone face," the major told the NCO. Emotion is distracting; safety depends on soldiers staying focused on their jobs. Still, it seemed an inhuman command.

The exchange was still playing through my mind as my eyes scanned the seats at the service and found Petraeus. He wore the stone face; even in this tragic moment, he exuded calm and control. Yet the sadness, too, was unmistakable. It was clear in the way his eyes wrinkled at the corners and his mouth tugged downward. This was not the pure stoicism of the sergeant major. Here, I thought, was a man who knew leaders must inspire confidence but who also knew that human feelings cannot be denied.

It's exactly this sort of paradox that animates the work and leadership of Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander who for the past 15 months led the training of the new Iraqi security forces. Petraeus is one of the most fascinating people in the United States Army. With a Ph.D. from Princeton University, he is often referred to as the military's warrior-scholar. He has drawn deeply from his dual backgrounds to create a leadership style that is at once of a piece with military tradition, yet is at the same time innovative.

So . . . yeah, this guy is impressive. Indeed, he is a warrior-scholar in the very best sense of the term. And he could be just the commander who helps jumpstart the reconstruction effort in Iraq so as to bring about long-term stability and security, and eventually, a political system that values pluralism and transparency.

The question, of course, is whether he will have the chance. After spending so much time demanding the presence of more troops in Iraq, the critics of the war are now criticizing the idea of sending more troops to Iraq. Never mind that Iraq is not yet stabilized. Never mind that the Iraqis don't want us to go yet. Never mind that Petraeus's counterinsurgency tactics have not yet been put to the test. And never mind that a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq will only allow the terrorists and insurgents already in the country to fill the vacuum and turn Iraq into a base of operations from which further terror can be inflicted outwards.

I hope that David Petraeus has the same superhuman skills at persuading Congressional skeptics to give him time and space to carry out his goals that he showed in persuading his doctors to send him home early. Our national security goals in Iraq may depend on him being able to carry such an argument off.

http://redstate.com/stories/featured_stories/i_am_a_fan_of_david_petraeus

PRESIDENT BUSH CAN STILL SINK THE DEMOCRATS
By Jed Babbin

Now the clock has begun to run on Nancy Pelosi's first 100 hours as Speaker. She'll find them very short. Despite the disdain for George W. Bush's political skill, he has remade the political landscape into a rough road for the Dems. They can't openly advocate cutting and running from Iraq: they're taking cover under the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report. Worse still for the liberals, George Bush has made it possible to debate seriously everything from Social Security to private options in education and health. But it's not easy for Republicans either. They have to exorcise the ghosts of surrenders past or they will end up caving in on key issues and allow the Dems to consolidate control of Congress and move on to capture the White House in 2008.

Congressional REPUBLICANS HAVE TO CHOOSE among three paths. They can go along with the Democrats and try to claim partial credit for whatever liberal horribles the Dems pass. They can obstruct (and often succeed) but probably won't for fear of the 527 Media. Or THEY CAN JOIN WITH THE PRESIDENT TO PUSH HARD FOR THEIR DOMESTIC AGENDA WHILE THE PRESIDENT'S TIME IS DOMINATED BY WAR.

. . . For the White House Iraq overshadows everything, and will continue to until the end of the Bush 43 presidency. But it will not be that all-encompassing to Congress because the only major role Congress can play in the conduct of a war is to cut funding and try to thwart its prosecution. Though many of them want to, the Dems don't dare try. Their hands are tied. If Congressional Republicans were to base their strategy on that fact, they and the president could corner the Democrats and set them up for defeat in 2008.

Republican congressional leaders - Sens. Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott, Reps. John Boehner and Roy Blunt - should hold a series of meetings with the president with two goals. First, they must exorcise the political ghosts that now haunt the president. Congressional leaders need to tell the president that what he's hearing about retreat and compromise is just more half-Bakered baloney. PRESIDENT BUSH IS, BY NATURE, A FIGHTER. BUT HE'S IN ROUND 8 OF A 10-ROUNDER AND MAY BE A LITTLE TIRED. GOP leaders (AND WE DOSERS) leaders need to help fire him up. Second, Bush and the GOP leaders must know that the Dems will declare anything proposed in the State of the Union address to be dead on arrival. The smarter Republican leaders such as McConnell will realize that six months from now, the Dems will have accomplished little, and will be ready with their own agenda.

. . . The predicate for all this will be the new Iraq strategy. The Dems may be reeling when next week's speech is over.

The president's new strategy will, almost certainly, reject the Baker-Hamilton preemptive surrender idea. Bush is, for better and for worse, a stubborn man who has never accepted the idea of defeat in Iraq. It's not enough to say we will pursue victory in Iraq. If he says - in as clear and compelling terms as his post 9-11 "you're either with us, or with the terrorists" speech - that the war in Iraq is a regional war that has to be won, not surrendered as the Baker-Hamilton gang proposed, he can put us on the path to a clear and understandable victory.

George Bush can, in his last two years, put us on the path to victory abroad and his party on the path to winning in 2008. He can diminish the cynicism and distrust Americans feel toward their government. DESPITE THE MEDIA'S NARRATIVE TO THE CONTRARY, AMERICANS LIKE GEORGE BUSH AND WANT TO TRUST HIM. Taking decisive steps toward winning the war against terrorist nations and refusing to surrender to liberals in Congress could be the good beginnings of a great end to his presidency.

You can read the entire commentary at
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/president_bush_can_still_sink.html

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