A Failure of Leadership

"Asked about his interest in body counts, Bush told Woodward: 'I asked that on occasion to find out whether or not we're fighting back. Because the perception is that our guys are dying and they're not. Because we don't put out numbers. We don't have a tally. On the other hand, if I'm sitting here watching the casualties come in, I'd at least like to know whether or not our soldiers are fighting.'"

Body counts, of course, are a notoriously suspect way of measuring success in an armed conflict -- particularly one where it can be hard to tell enemies from civilians.

As for the surge, Woodward writes that it was only one of several factors that combined to reduce the violence in Iraq. Luxenberg writes that Woodward gives particular credit to unspecified but "groundbreaking" new covert techniques that "enabled U.S. military and intelligence officials to locate, target and kill insurgent leaders and key individuals in extremist groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Bill Sammon writes for Fox News that "Woodward's last tome, 'State of Denial,' . . . ended with the line: 'With all Bush's upbeat talk and optimism, he had not told the American public the truth about what Iraq had become.'

"Woodward repeats the line in his new book, adding: 'My reporting for this book showed that to be even more the case than I could have imagined. . . .

"'President Bush has rarely leveled with the public to explain what he was doing and what should be expected,' wrote Woodward, an assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, in 'War Within.' 'He did not seek sacrifice from most of the country when he had the chance. He did not even mobilize his own party. Republicans often voiced as much suspicion and distrust as Democrats. The president was rarely the voice of realism on the Iraq war.' . . .

"Woodward also quotes [John] McCain expressing frustration with the Bush White House, clenching his fists in the West Wing and exclaiming to Woodward: 'Everything is f---ing spin.'"

Meanwhile, at the Convention

The Republican presidential nominee last night opened his plodding acceptance speech with a cursory acknowledgement of the Republican incumbent, though not by name: "I'm grateful to the president of the United States for leading us in these dark days following the worst attack in American history," McCain said, "and keeping us safe from another attack that many -- many thought was inevitable."

But in the rest of his speech, McCain tried to distance himself from Bush, in part by presenting himself as a different man -- a tested hero -- and in part with vague criticisms of the status quo and even vaguer promises of change.

"We're going to finally start getting things done for the people who are counting on us," McCain said.

"We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. . . . We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger. . . . We're going to recover the people's trust by standing up again to the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics. . . .

"We need to change the way government does almost everything: from the way we protect our security to the way we compete in the world economy; from the way we respond to disasters to the way we fuel our transportation network; from the way we train our workers to the way we educate our children."