Welcome Back -- 1/10/07
Welcome back to a new semester of news.
With a new House of Representatives and a new Senate, both headed by Democrats, President Bush has his work cut out for him tonight as he offers a new plan for Iraq – one he calls a strategy for victory and his opponents call an escalation of a war he can’t win. Watch his speech this evening, but read some analysis beforehand. This piece in the New York Times gives some sense of what the congressional response is likely to be (Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse, "Democrats Plan Symbolic Votes against Iraq," 1/9/07); this one from the Washington Post highlights some of the internal politics behind Bush’s plan (Michael Abramowitz, et al., "With Iraq Speech, Bush to Pull Away from His Generals," 1/10/07).
What is at stake for Bush in this speech? Why is he still trying to win a war with a strategy that over sixty percent of Americans oppose? What is at stake for the new Democratic majorities in Congress? Is Iraq an issue they want to deal with right now? Why or why not?