Someone has to convince Bush that his lone job between now and Labor Day of this year is to do whatever it takes to get the Democrats to share responsibility on the Iraq issue.there's two problems with that plan. first, it won't ever completely work. the iraq war was the single biggest "accomplishment" of the bush presidency. it will be forever linked to his legacy, no matter what happens there in the future. when the administration first planned the war and was deep into the fantasy that iraqis would show american soldiers with flowers, that's probably how they wanted it to be. sure, plenty of people outside the administration enabled the administration's war plans. but that doesn't mean the choice to create a confrontation didn't originate in the white house. the war in iraq and its aftermath is and will always be bush's baby.
the second problem is completely independent from the first. because even if there is some way to separate bush from the iraq debacle in the public's mind, he won't be able to pin it on the democrats unless he first gives the democrats the power to make some policy decisions in iraq. and bush has made it quite clear that he's not willing to do that. which means that the blame will stick with him. see, the buck stops with the decider. that's just how it is.
