THE SPIN WITHIN….I haven’t yet read The War Within, Bob Woodward’s “secret White House history,” but I’ve read the excerpts in the Washington Post and my reaction so far is pretty similar to Derek Chollet’s. Far from being a critical account of George Bush’s management of the war, it reinforces exactly the narrative of himself that Bush himself is so fond of:
Beneath the surface, the core of Woodward’s account actually seems to reinforce the narrative that Bush is trying to spin about Iraq — that against mighty resistance inside and outside the government, a small group made the gutsy decision to double-down with the surge. As with every Woodward book, there’s a story within the story. His sources share their tales (or in some cases, secret papers) to settle a score or shape the historical narrative. And here we see National Security Adviser Steve Hadley taking over Iraq decision-making and guiding Bush as he stared down leery Generals and worried political advisers to push the 2007 surge.
….Now, former White House aides and loyal Bush defenders like Peter Wehner are using Woodward as Exhibit A to support their depiction of a heroic President. But perhaps the happiest reader will be John McCain. After all, he has as much at stake as Bush in having this “surge victory” narrative take hold. Woodward’s story also enables McCain to have it both ways, distancing himself from the chaos of the Bush Administration’s internal battles, while associating with the core message of defying conventional wisdom to support the surge. Woodward’s account of McCain is exactly as McCain’s campaign wants it to be.
That seems about right. Woodward has a pretty standard m.o. on these books, and it looks to me like the White House has finally figured out how to make that work for them instead of against them. Hadley looks good because he drove the planning of the surge, Bush looks good because he stayed out of the muck but nonetheless stood by his principles, and in the end, the mythology of the surge being solely responsible for the security improvements in Iraq gets a big boost. The White House must be pretty happy with Woodward right about now.
