Make It Two

Bill McGurn admires President Bush, and I admire him for admitting it.

over three years in the West Wing, you see a few things. You see who's a straight shooter, and who's full of snark. You see who's smart, and whose outrageous behavior would have made its way to Drudge had it involved White House staffers instead of White House correspondents. Most of all, you see how conventional wisdom can keep otherwise talented reporters and commentators on the same stale storyline long after the facts on the ground have changed.

He then cites three examples: tax cuts, stem cells, the surge. On the latter, here's more. Fred Barnes says one reason we're not hearing much about those Iraqi "benchmarks" anymore is that they're so far along on achieving them --the surge is having precisely the political effect it was meant to have. Albeit you may have heard differently from some.