How to Make an Exit

"I'm rather clever at appearing," said the Cheshire Cat grinning at Alice and the White King, "and I'm even better at disappearing."

-- V.R. Parton's variant

of "Alice in Wonderland"

George W. Bush promises to sprint to the finish line of his presidency. The nation must respond in one voice to its leader: "Oy." And "vey."

Instead of a sprint, Mr. President, you need to stage a deliberate military-style retreat from the Oval Office to diminish further losses and protect the limited gains made on your watch. This is true politically, economically and, most of all, in foreign policy.

That you get off stage, and how you do it, is vitally important to John McCain. His chances for victory in November ride primarily on escaping -- albeit respectfully -- from your record, your failed strategies, and your continuing belligerency toward those who disagree with you at home and abroad.

You can help your party's nominee most by fading away gradually, carefully choosing battles where the prestige of your office outweighs the animosities that swirl around you. You need to become a reverse Cheshire Cat, Mr. President: Leave no grin behind.

Limit your legacy hunt. Invest presidential time and energy, for example, in resolving the credit crisis sparked on your watch by predatory subprime lending, instead of leaving it to an oddly ineffective Treasury secretary who has gained neither traction nor credibility on the issue.

On foreign policy, apply lessons that emerge from conflicts where you have been most effective when least seen. A good example is Turkey's successfully managed military campaign into northern Iraq that ended Feb. 29.

Perhaps the primary effect of eight days of Turkish army strikes against barren wastelands and largely deserted camps of the PKK guerrillas has been to strengthen Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's moderate Islamic government in Ankara. I am told that a basic understanding on "red lines," or limits, for a campaign designed not to embarrass or damage Iraq's government or the Kurdish regional administration was reached at your White House meeting with Erdogan last autumn.

You also are said to have authorized an extraordinary level of real-time intelligence cooperation in which senior Turkish officers followed the operations of their forces inside Iraq through U.S. satellite networks and unmanned aircraft. This secret cooperation has helped repair frayed relations with the Turkish military.

The Baghdad government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Kurdish regional government of Massoud Barzani showed new levels of sophistication in opposing the Turkish operation with periodic, minimal criticism. That sophistication is a gain you can take pride in, as long as you do it silently.