"Newsview: Bush, Security Team Out of Synch"

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and his national security team may be singing from the same songbook on their "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" campaign blitz. They're just not necessarily always on the same page.

Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld are making a concentrated push to clarify the administration's goals and game plan. The hope is to rebuild public support and demonstrate resolve ahead of elections Dec. 15 in Iraq for a permanent government.

Bush gave a major speech on Iraq last week at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., plans one this week and two more the following week. Rumsfeld gives a speech on Monday. Cheney, who in recent days has given two sharply worded speeches castigating Democratic critics of the war, plans to address troops returning from Iraq to Fort Drum, N.Y., on Tuesday.

"They're trying to get on a common message, and it's basically coming through. But it took them a long time to get to this message," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20051204/D8E976G00.html