Theres no question that

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There’s no question that President Bush stepped very deep in it yesterday when he sidestepped responsibility for the “Mission Accomplished” banner in the background at his announcement of the end of ‘major combat operations’ on board the USS Abraham Lincoln last May 1st.

As you may have seen, the president said that it was the Navy’s idea to put up the sign, not the White House’s. (The sign was carefully placed to frame the image of the president as he gave his speech.)

“We took care of the production of it,” said Scott McClellan, “We have people to do those things. But the Navy actually put it up.”

So it was all the Navy’s idea, but the White House was happy to step in with their sign-makers to help out.

Yeah. (They forced him to get on that plane too …)

This is so ridiculous that I’m surprised they’re even trying it. It’s an example of how bedraggled and out-of-it they are at the moment.

I think it’s at least possible that someone on board the ship or in the Navy suggested such a sign. But even if that’s true, it’s irrelevant.

This event aboard the Abraham Lincoln was a particularly crass exercise. But every such major event for a modern president is minutely choreographed. For Clinton as much as for Bush. Nothing isn’t debated. And nothing, no image or word, is left to chance.

I doubt the Navy actually suggested this idea. But if they did — and they may have — there is no way that the idea was not debated, planned, vetted and everything else in the White House’s political and communications offices. No way.

Everybody knows that it’s ridiculous. And yet the president is on the record saying it.

And unlike a lot of other inherently more important issues, this is the sort of thing the White House press corps grabs onto and won’t let go of.

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