Bush turned against Rove and went with a "limited hangout"

Capitol Hill Blue: The White House's bitter debate over admitting a mistake

Bush’s speech, delivered Wednesday, went through more than a dozen drafts before settling on the language the President would use:

“It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong,” Bush said in the final draft. “As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq.”

But, in typical Bush style, the President remained committed to the war.
“Saddam was a threat — and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," Bush said.

The debate over admitting the use of false intelligence marked the second straight defeat for Rove in determining the President’s course is trying to resell his Iraq war to a skeptical American public. He argued against the current strategy used by Bush to admit some setbacks, saying “a real leader doesn’t act that way.”

Tags: Rove, intel, Iraq, Bush, liars, lies, WMD