Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Plan Delay
Everyone's all abuzz about Bush's new plan. It appears he'll be sending in more troops (be careful what you wish for St. John McCain) and opening an offensive against Moqtada al Sadr while aligning with SCIRI.

I'll leave the pure madness of such a policy aside for a moment.

Why the delay in the announcement?
Administration officials said Bush decided all of the issues surrounding Iraq are too complicated and he would rather not rush a plan out the door. The delay is largely seen as a sign that there continue to be strong disagreements between the president's advisers on how best to proceed.
They're missing an obvious explanation. You don't try and sell a yucky product over Christmas. Imagine the news stories of crying spouses with children on their laps, Christmas trees glimmering in the background, talking about how their partners are staying for yet another tour, or are being called up .... at Christmas time. Not good "optics" (as they say).

They'll wait until the after the holidays. Everyone is depressed then anyway. It will also put more time/distance between the annoucement and the popular support for the Iraq Study Group. The optics will be better to display this turd of a policy.