Dan Froomkin has an article which points out how the White House subtly changed its rhetoric regarding the Iranian nuclear threat. Prior to August, President Bush talked of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. But something happened in the August 6-9 time frame. Since then, Bush has discussed Iran’s desire to build nuclear weapons, or acquiring the knowledge to build nuclear weapons, or enriching uranium. The logical explanation for the change is that in August Bush learned of the intelligence assessment that Iran had halted work on a weapon; since then he has done a rhetorical tap dance around making the specific claim that Iran is manufacturing a bomb.
It’s bad enough that Bush has gone on for the last four months leading Americans to the unsubstantiated–and likely false–conclusion that Iran is building a nuclear weapon (remember the World War III threat?). But when the leaked NIE exposed his deception, he added insult to injury with a bogus ignorance defense.
How bad must things be at the top when the “President doesn’t know what’s going on” claim is apparently their best spin?
Keith Olbermann gets shrill: