Demagogue

When President Bush appeared one week ago in Cleveland to discuss Iraq, he used the word “progress” eight times. It’s a very popular word whenever the administration talks about Iraq.

In his last reference in his Cleveland remarks, the president said:

“It's my job to remind people that progress is being made, in spite of the violence they see.”

Or, to put it another way: who are you going to believe — me or your own eyes?

But Bush is clearly not succeeding at what he described as his job. Perhaps that’s why White House press secretary Scott McClellan has taken the “progress” refrain one step further.

Since the American people aren’t buying this talk of progress, McClellan has decided that it’s time to decorate the noun a little. Three days after Bush’s Cleveland speech, McClellan conducted a press briefing in which he used the word “progress” 10 times.

In 7 of those 10 references, McClellan used the term “real progress.” Y'know, just in case Americans thought the White House's prior references to progress were sheer sarcasm.