Sometimes it’s useful to let a story’s own lead speak for itself. Take, for example, the doozy of a question that opens Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s New York Times article about Bush’s economic focus in Monday’s State of the Union address: “Will George W. Bush be remembered as the president who lost the economy while trying to win a war?”


The New York Times:

Mr. Bush has spent years presiding over an economic climate of growth that would be the envy of most presidents. Yet much to the consternation of his political advisers, he has had trouble getting credit for it, in large part because Americans were consumed by the war in Iraq.

The chaotic events of the past week — wild stock market swings, a major cut in the interest rate from the Federal Reserve and a rare bipartisan deal between Mr. Bush and Congressional Democrats on an economic stimulus package — has turned that equation on its head, just in time for Mr. Bush to deliver his final State of the Union address Monday night.

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