WaPo: White House cuts and runs from "stay the course" phrase

'Stay the course' retired as White House mantra | ajc.com: "President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as 'stay the course.'

'That is not a stay-the-course policy,' White House press secretary Tony Snow declared Monday.

Where would anyone have gotten that idea? Maybe from Bush.

'We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed,' he said in Salt Lake City in August.

'We will win in Iraq so long as we stay the course,' he said in Milwaukee in July.

'I saw people wondering whether the United States would have the nerve to stay the course and help them succeed,' he said after returning from Baghdad in June.

But now the White House is cutting and running from 'stay the course.' A phrase meant to connote steely resolve instead has become a symbol for being out of touch in the face of a war that seems to grow worse by the week, Republican strategists say.

Instead, they have begun emphasizing how adaptable the president's Iraq policy actually is. Bush remains steadfast about remaining in Iraq, they say, but constantly shifts tactics and methods in response to an adjusting enemy."