NYT: Bush reverses on voters' cries for 'change'

RAW STORYPublished: Monday December 25, 2006

A White House Memo slated for Tuesday's edition of The New York Times proposes that President Bush may be "flip-flopping" on vows to listen and act immediately to cries for "change" from voters who helped put the Democratic Party back in control of Congress, RAW STORY has learned.

"Immediately after the beating his party took in November, President Bush indicated he had received a message that voters wanted change and he would serve some up fast: He ousted his defense secretary, announced a full-scale review of his war plan and contritely agreed with critics that progress in Iraq was not happening 'well enough, fast enough,'" writes Jim Rutenberg.

"But in the last two weeks critics and even some allies say they have seen a reversal: He has shrugged off suggestions by the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group that he enlist the help of Iran and Syria in the effort to stabilize Iraq; he has countered suggestions that he begin thinking of bringing troops home," the article continues.

The most recent White House Memo, in Monday's Times, written by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, discussed "Bush-watchers" who wondered how the president coped with stress.

"Mr. Bush has never been one for introspection, in public or in private," wrote Stolberg. "But the questions of how the president is coping, and whether his public pronouncements match what he feels as he searches for a new strategy in Iraq, have been much on the minds of Bush-watchers these days."

DEVELOPING...MORE FROM THE LATEST NYT WHITE HOUSE MEMO TO COME LATER...