Bush diatribe -- shockingly bad politics

One important aspect of Bush's Veteran's Day diatribe has received too little attention:  it is simply horrible politics.  Rove has proven to be a very skillful at political strategy and politics.  When he makes a move that simply defies logic, it is worth taking note.  Either he sees something we don't, or the White House is rapidly losing any ability to function.  I suspect its the latter.

Why do I say its horrible politics?  Very simply, Bush is plunging headlong into a debate that he cannot possibly win and cannot afford to lose.  The problem for Bush is not merely that Americans overwhelmingly believe he misled the country into war.  The problem is that the folks whose minds Bush would have to change took this view slowly and reluctantly.  Perhaps 25% of us believed/knew Bush was lying from the get go.  The other 30% or so who now feel this way are moderate voters who placed a great deal of faith and trust in Bush for many years.  They did not decide overnight that he lied.  They did so after much thought and reflection.  These folks are not going to be swayed by Bush pounding on the podium.  Much more likely, they are going to take it personally and resent Bush for it.  There's no doubt we do.  Given the facts as they are, there is simply nothing George Bush could say or do to convince anywhere near 50% of the American public that he was honest in the runup to the Iraq war.

So, why is he doing it?  I've racked my brain, and I can only come up with two answers.  The first possibility is that they felt that Bush was in such a free fall that it was worth sacrificing 60% or so of the electorate in order to keep his approval rate from going any lower.  The argument would be that it became paramount to do something, anything, to stem the bleeding.  Even if that means focusing on the 35% or so in Bush's camp and ignoring the others.  How better to rally these folks, the real Kool-Aid drinkers, than to put Bush into fist-pounding attack mode.  Of course, this is foolish.  Voters take the issue of being misled into war pretty seriously.  Sure, Bush may be able to put a floor under Bush's approval ratings.  But, with the concomitant likelihood of putting a ceiling on them as well.  Voters really don't like being misled into a war.  A protracted, emotional, national debate on whether Bush did that is decidedly not going to pave a way for Bush to get back to an approval rating in the high 40's, which is presumably the minimum target the White House has in mind.

The only other reason I can come up with for the Veteran's Day diatribe is that Rove felt compelled to come up with something that would boost morale inside the White House.  If that is indeed the rationale, it suggests an astonishing level of desperation.

Maybe there's an argument for the diatribe that I haven't come up with yet.  But, I know this much.  Bush is now on record as a willing an eager participant in a debate that he cannot win.  And, I think this tells us something disturbing about the ability of this White House to function rationally.