BUSH MEETS WITH FORMER SECRETARIES OF STATE, DEFENSE IN SHORT, CHOREOGRAPHED MEETING

I guess they had to go; who turns down in invitation from the president of the United States to lend him advice about an American war? But in the end, all it was was a photo op. Look at the forest of microphones.

From all accounts, almost no-one except Madeline Albright spoke up in criticism.

The president said the meeting, which had been scheduled for 45 minutes but lasted about an hour, had given him "a chance to listen to their concerns, their suggestions about the way forward."

"Not everybody around this table agrees with my decision to go into Iraq. I fully understand that," Bush told reporters during a photo session at the end of the meeting. "But these are good, solid Americans who understand that we've got to succeed now that we're there.

"We take to heart the advice," he said.

Proof that the meeting was never meant to be a serious attempt for the president to receive advice from the hundreds of years of experience in the room is that it was only allotted 45 minutes.

It was just another scheme in the president's campaign to remake his image, this time as a listener of all viewpoints (he's trying to get away from the "man in the bubble" perception). The suggestion that he heard anything of substance or real insight from the 13 former Secretaries of State and Defense that attended when they were only given an aggregate 5-10 minutes in which to contribute (the private intelligence/military briefing lasted for most of the 45-minute meeting) is absurd.

I also understood from one of Albright's appearances on talk shows last night the the prez got a little testy when he heard HER comments. He was probably irked that she spoiled his little performance. The videotape won't be a pristine all-favorable-to-Shrub feed to the networks and cable shows!

It also sounds as if the "briefing" the former Secretaries received was a pretty grim outlook. Bush reiterated his stock lines about "staying the course" and our leaving Iraq all depends on how fast we train the Iraqis to take over.

Tags: Bush, Secretaries of State and Defense, photo-op, Iraq war