With '04 in Mind, Bush Team Saw Economic, Political Peril (washingtonpost.com)

The first step toward recovery, it is often said, is admitting you have a problem. That's what President Bush did yesterday.

By pushing out his top two economic officials -- Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and National Economic Council Director Lawrence B. Lindsey -- Bush acknowledged that the U.S. economy is in trouble and that he will be blamed for it in 2004 if growth is not restored.

This is an entirely political White House and this is a step in the 2004 campaign.