The continuing adventures of Bubble Boy

I think the WaPo headline aptly sums things up: Bush Still Upbeat on Outcome In Iraq [emphasis mine].

So who are we going to believe? A man whose only trip to Iraq involved smuggling in a plastic turkey in the dead of night?

Bush, who spoke on the White House South Lawn after returning from a weekend at Camp David, said that he is encouraged by Iraq's continuing steps toward democracy, and that he is urging Iraqi leaders "to work hard to get this government up and running." Bush said he spoke by phone yesterday to U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, who he said remains encouraged by the political progress being made in Iraq.

Or, I dunno, someone who was actually the head of the Iraqi government in the past couple of years?

[Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad] Allawi contradicted Bush's progress report, saying the country is edging toward "the point of no return."

"We are losing a day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Allawi said on BBC's "Sunday AM" program. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Meanwhile, Dick Cheney (you may remember him - he was the traumatized victim of someone stepping in front of his shotgun blast) continued his "if-I-keep-repeating-it-someday-it'll-be-true" routine:

CBS anchor Bob Schieffer bluntly challenged Cheney on his own string of prognostications, such as his pre-invasion assertion that U.S. troops would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators and, 10 months ago, that the insurgency was in its "last throes."

Cheney replied that those statements were "basically accurate and reflect reality," but that public perceptions of Iraq's progress are being skewed "because what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad."

Again linking the war in Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Cheney called the conflict part of "an aggressive, forward-leaning" strategy that has prevented terrorist incidents in the United States since then.

In the meantime, outside of the bubble, no one is fooled:

Meanwhile, a growing majority of Americans believe the effort is not worth the cost both financially and in lives lost. A Washington Post-ABC News poll earlier this month found that two-thirds of Americans questioned whether the United States has a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq.