I heard this bit on the news last night:

Mr. Bush’s comments were the latest iteration in a recent rhetorical evolution that has seen him move from vowing to "stay the course" in Iraq to promising flexibility. But Mr. Bush also said, "We cannot allow our dissatisfaction to turn into disillusionment about our purpose in this war." He said eight separate times, in various formulations, that he was committed to getting the job done.

What now is the purpose? Is it only a free and democratic Iraq? Is it a orderly Iraq that can defend itself? Is it removing the foreign troops without a collapse? I think there is a purpose - or could be one - but it is not being enunciated. So we have Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki backing away from support of US actions and wee Mr. Blix gets to be unkind. But where has the rhetorical certainty gone? Where is the transformative enthusiasm?

Is it just me or has been a collapse in the ability of the administration to even show itself to be eager to lead? I suppose that is why you do things like shuffling your cabinet to introduce new faces and new ideas well before you are six years into a government facing a very lame duck last two years.