Bush "Comma" Analogy Drawing Criticism

As President Bush repeats his "comma" analogy on the campaign trail, the reference is drawing increasing criticism, according to today's Washington Post. Bush has stated, on at least three occasions, that this violent era of Iraq's history will be seen as "just a comma" in history books. He used the analogy in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on September 24, then repeated it at a campaign event in Alabama last week and in California this week. The Post reports:

But opponents of the war have seized on the formulation, seeing it as evidence that Bush is indifferent to suffering. To them, it sounds as if the president is dismissing more than 2,700 U.S. troop deaths as "just a comma."

Presidential advisor Dan Bartlett says folks are reading too much into the comments about the commas, which he defined as "brief periods."