Iraq? Troops? Obama? They keep Perino busy

There was no way that the question of Barack Obama's trip to Afghanistan, Iraq and now elsewhere in the Middle East would just disappear from the radar at the White House -- at least not in a public sense.

And so, for a second day press secretary Dana Perino's midday briefing was dominated by the topic, what with his declaration that said, in effect, "sure, I'll listen to the commanders on the ground, but I'll be the commander-in-chief."

Was all this interfering with Bush's efforts in the region?

"I'm not going to comment on Sen. Obama's trip nor his press conference," Perino said. "But I can assure you that President Bush, the commander in chief, does not allow anything to distract him from his mission to make sure that we win in Iraq."

The whole situation is complicated by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's expression of support at the end of last week for Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months of inauguration day.

So, how is the Bush-Maliki relationship doing these days?

"It's very good," Perino said.

And so it went for question after question, until, finally, Perino declared: "You all want me to talk about Sen. Obama [she was right] and I'm just not going to do it [right again.]"

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo credit: Jannine B. Hartmann / EPA