While "stay the course" was a message which, on balance, worked to the President's benefit during the 2004 campaign, that message turned decisively against the Republican party in 2006. And even though the President tried to move away from that language in the second half of last year, Democrats were very effective at pinning the President's policy as "stay the course" and theirs as "change." The public clearly wanted change and voted for such in November.

From a public relations standpoint if the President's new policy has any hope of generating increased support he has to convince the public that his new Iraq plan is indeed a change from what we have been doing the last 18 months. Last week on FOX News Sunday, the new Majority leader in the House, Rep. Steny Hoyer, made it clear that the Democrats were going to characterize the President plan as more of the same.

We don't see this as a new policy....if the administration's policy remains the same, then we're going to have the same-old-same-old.

Yesterday on Meet the Press National security Advisor Stephen Hadley made it clear the from the administration's standpoint the new plan is not a continuation of Stay the Course.

One of the things that's different, I think, from, from that time is that we do have this unity government. This unity government's been in, in office about seven months. They are getting enormous pressure from their people to get the violence down, and that means, really, sectarian violence centered in Baghdad. They're responding to that pressure. They've come forward with a plan. They have made clear that they're going to increase their forces. They're committed to success, but they need our help to succeed. And it's important we do that because the alternatives, really, are the continued--the existing strategy, the stay the course, which everybody agrees is not working--that's failure slow--or simply turning it over to the Iraqis now and withdrawing, redeploying, whatever you call it, and that simply is not going to work because everybody agrees the Iraqis are not up to it. This is the, the--a strategy that offers the prospect of success as an alternative to either failing slow or failing fast. And the Americans--one thing we know about the American people, they're unhappy with this war, they want a new direction--so does the president--but they want to succeed, they don't want to fail. (emphasis added)

The administration and President Bush would be wise to repeat this line over and over again. First, it helps earn back credibility with the public by acknowledging the truth that the President's approach in 2006 was failing. Second, the political reality is if the President's new plan is perceived as more of the same or a continuation of "stay the course" the American people are not going to support it. And more importantly Republicans in Congress will not support it over time. The administration needs to understand, that not only do they have to show demonstrable progress on the ground in Iraq, but they have to build and sustain support among the American people.

The best way the President can generate that support and convince the American people that this new policy in Iraq is indeed different, is to make sure that the difference going forward is going to be much more that just 20,000 more troops. That means a significant switch to offensive-minded rules of engagement and a willingessness to confront and "deal with" Sadr, Iran, Syria and anyone else who is deliberately undermining our objectives.

Despite the polls and the pronouncements of some among the beltway establishment, my sense is that the American people are still willing to get behind an effort to win in Iraq, but they need to see more dramatic action and get a gut feeling that this plan is really different - and they need to see this soon.