The Listener-in-ChiefThe challenge for

The Listener-in-Chief:

The challenge for Bush’s team was to make the president appear as though he were taking the release of the [ISG] report seriously, without necessarily embracing its conclusions. In the days following the report’s release, Bush the Decider transformed himself into Bush the Listener. Usually prickly with war critics—on the rare occasions he spoke to them at all—the president now invited them in from the cold and kept quiet.

. . .

The results of that effort will be unveiled next week, when Bush is expected to announce what he calls “The New Way Forward,” his latest plan to salvage the mission in Iraq.

The New Way Forward? How very Mao.