Republicans at a governors' association meeting here raised concerns on Saturday about the Bush administration's ability to communicate its policies on Iraq, particularly as Americans continue to die.
Gov. Donald L. Carcieri of Rhode Island faulted the White House for not delivering a better message on its successes in Iraq and said that as the casualties rose, skepticism over President Bush's policies would rise.
"The case has to be made much more articulately, much more aggressively, because right now we're at risk that this was a fabrication, this whole Iraq issue was a fabrication," Mr. Carcieri said in a panel discussion at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association here. "The issue for Bush is trust."
The low-key gathering was largely a chance for Republicans to celebrate their recent successes at the polls. The main speaker was Ken Mehlman, Mr. Bush's campaign manager, who predicted that the 2004 election would be extremely close — "It could be as close as 2000" — but said that several signs favored Mr. Bush's re-election.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/national/23GOVS.html