George Bush's Saturday Radio Address was another installment of, "don't believe your lying eyes," as the Commander guy told the nation that really, that interim report on how the escalation is working isn't as bad as the cut and runners are making it out to be.

This is a preliminary report. In September, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will return to Washington to provide a more comprehensive assessment. [...] Those who believe that the battle in Iraq is lost are pointing to the unsatisfactory performance on some of the political benchmarks. Those of us who believe the battle in Iraq can and must be won see the satisfactory performance on several of the security benchmarks as a cause for optimism.

For the record, the Maliki government has failed on legislation for oil revenue sharing, scheduling provincial elections and reforming de-Baathification laws, three of the benchmarks that the Bush administration has been touting as vital to political reconciliation. On the bright side, the Iraqi government did pony up $10 billion for reconstruction (versus the $450 billion we've spent so far). But Bush is optimistic, because they do have eight weeks before that September report. Well, not quite eight weeks:

Q Is the Iraqi government and the Iraqi parliament taking the month of August off? MR. SNOW: Probably, yes. Just not -- Q They're taking the entire month of August off, before the September deadline? MR. SNOW: It looks like they may, yes. Just like the U.S. Congress is. Q Have you tried to talk them out of that? MR. SNOW: You know, it's 130 degrees in Baghdad in August, I'll pass on your recommendation. Q Well, Tony, Tony, I'm sorry, that's -- you know -- I mean, there are a lot of things that happen by September and it's 130 degrees for the U.S. military also on the ground -- MR. SNOW: You know, that's a good point. And it's 130 degrees for the Iraqi military. The Iraqis, you know, I'll let them -- my understanding is that at this juncture they're going to take August off, but, you know, they may change their minds.

Well sure, our Congress is taking August off, so why shouldn't the Iraqi Parliment? That's a fair comparison.

Bush finished by saying:

Most Americans want to see two things in Iraq: They want to see our troops succeed, and they want to see our troops begin to come home. We can do both, and we will. [...] Thank you for listening.

No, most Americans, in fact, 70% of Americans, want a timetable for troop withdrawal now. When is George Bush going to start listening to us?