The "repudiation" narrative

It was interesting to watch yesterday as the ISG's report was slowly digested through the 24 hour media how the narrative slowly changed. Immediately after the release, most of the discussion was on the top line proposals and whether the Bush administration would take them on.

But slowly throughout the day, the "repudiation" narrative grew, probably most epitomized by this 9PM AP article, Panel: Bush's Iraq policies have failed.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's war policies have failed in almost every regard, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group concluded Wednesday, and it warned of dwindling chances to change course before crisis turns to chaos....

Nearly four years, $400 billion and more than 2,900 U.S. deaths into a deeply unpopular war, violence is bad and getting worse, there is no guarantee of success and the consequences of failure are great, the panel of five Republicans and five Democrats said in a bleak accounting of U.S. and Iraqi shortcomings. The implications, they warned, are dire for terrorism, war in the Middle East and higher oil prices around the world.

The late announced visit by Tony Blair is accomplishing the White House's goal by, at the very least, forcing the Bush/Blair meeting into the headline space. They're trying to reset the news cycle away from "repudiation" and "failure." I'll be very curious to see how successful they are.