Craig Crawford nails this latest public relations tactic the White House is employing to buy time through the holidays.

YahooNews:

If just listening could make policy, then George W. Bush might have found a way forward in Iraq nearly a year ago. After all, this past week is not the first time the White House has mounted a listening offensive to turn things around.

[..]As with the current White House strategy of listening before talking, the president's January session with foreign policy experts served as the prelude to a speech. A week later he addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars and gave no indication that he had gleaned anything new at all from his listening offensive - not only rejecting any change in course in Iraq but asserting that the increased turmoil there was actually a sign of success.

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