How Bush could save his butt AND save Iraq

Josh Marhsall opines that Bush is "too small-minded and vainglorious" to deal with the situation in Iraq as it is and take the necessary steps to correct the problem. Steps including, but not limited, to a "clean sweep" of those in his circle who are primarily responsible for the massive fuckup this has become (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Cheney. But keep Rice around if for no other reason then it is not clear that she is at all doctrinaire about Iraq.) Josh further states that this move might doom Bush politically but that a "good leader" would damn those consequences and do it anyway for the good of the country.

I agree with Josh on the first point but disagree on the latter. If Bush were to jettison the whole crew and start over I think the American people would give him another chance. The sad reality is that the majority of Americans either love the guy or want to love the guy but that his pig-headedness is making it harder and harder for them to do so. If he were to just come right out and make a major course correction and say, "we fucked up but now we're going to fix it" then I think a lot of those people would vote to give him the chance to do it right this time.

Americans are suckers that way.

No, the main reason this is unlikely to happen (unless things get really bad) is that Bush is just constitutionally incapable of admitting to error. Something that would be necessary to make this kind of action work. He might try to go half way and eject everyone while still talking as if it was all their fault and that he would have succeeded sooner in Iraq if Rumsfeld and Cheney hadn't been such idiots. But I think that might push the American people's tolerance for bullshit to the breaking point (God I would hope so).

No, if Bush were to do this and pull it off (i.e., still get re-elected and have a reasonable chance of saving face in Iraq) he would have to do something he has never done in his life: take personal responsibility for something going wrong.

Yeah right.