New Bush drive for support on Iraq

When President Bush addresses the nation Tuesday evening from Fort Bragg, N.C., a tableau of US troops behind him, he will make his boldest effort in months to reassure Americans that the administration is not "disconnected from reality" in Iraq, as even some in his own party now charge.

Already, for the past week, Bush's new emphasis on Iraq has been well rehearsed: The road ahead is tough, and the casualties weigh on him personally, but the US must press ahead. Iraq is moving forward with a new constitution and national elections. Setting a timetable for US withdrawal would only aid the enemy.

On Tuesday, "he will make the point that this is a critical moment in a time of testing," says presidential spokesman Scott McClellan.

But on the home front, another enemy lurks: public opinion. The latest Associated Press-Ipsos survey shows 53 percent of the public now believe launching the Iraq war was a mistake, a record for that poll. Other polls show up to 60 percent of the public unhappy with progress in the war.

"It's obviously important to have popular support when a democracy goes to war," says Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster based in Alexandria, Va. "But it's also critically important to remember that public opinion is going to be driven largely by events on the ground, and those events are going to drive public opinion both up and down during the course of a war."

Still, Bush administration officials know that the overall polling trends present a problem, and that they have to fight the news media's natural tendency to emphasize bad news - including a US death toll in Iraq that tops 1,700 - with their own examples of good news, all without appearing out of touch.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was the administration's point man, appearing on three talk shows with the message that, ultimately, it will be the Iraqi people and Iraqi security forces who defeat the insurgency, and that the US role is to an create an environment for that to occur.

"The task for the president and the government and the military leadership is to show that progress is being made, which it is," Secretary Rumsfeld said on Fox News Sunday. "There is no question the Iraqi security forces are getting better and better, and have the confidence of the Iraqi people."

Rumsfeld faced tough questioning last week during congressional hearings, including a comment from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina that even in his patriotic state, "people are beginning to question." He added: "I think we have a chronic problem on our hands."

When asked Sunday about Senator Graham's remark, Rumsfeld acknowledged that he has a point. "[People] see the negative day after day in the press and on television that people are dying," he said. "But if you think about it, the terrorists are killing Iraqis in large numbers. That is not the way to win the support of the Iraqi people."

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