Footnote to the preceding

And how does the Shrub team deal with problems? Why deny them, of course - anything else would be admitting a mistake and as we know that just can't happen. MSNBC for Wednesday:

The Bush administration played down voter turnout yesterday in determining the election's legitimacy and urged Americans not to get bogged in a numbers game in judging the balloting, a reflection of the growing concern over how much the escalating insurgency and the problem of Sunni participation may affect the vote.

"I would ... really encourage people not to focus on numbers, which in themselves don't have any meaning, but to look on the outcome and to look at the government that will be the product of these elections," a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity at a White House briefing yesterday. The official highlighted the low voter turnout in U.S. elections as evidence that polling numbers are not essential to legitimacy.

But of course none of this is to lower expectations, oh no, it's rather to provide "education of the process going forward," according to a "senior White House official" who was not allowed by the White House to go on the record, demonstrating their faith in their own arguments.

Footnote: The article also quotes analysts as saying that

[a]t this late date, the United States also has no viable options or alternatives other than trying to go forward with the Jan. 30 election,

Which I figured out back on December 19, saying that too much was invested in that date to do anything else.

Give 'em time, the experts do catch up with the rest of us eventually.