LA Times' Brownstein claimed Bush spoke the truth when he said war on terror is unwinnable; so what was the president speaking a month ago?

On the August 30 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Los Angeles Times columnist Ron Brownstein responded to a question from host Lou Dobbs -- on whether President George W. Bush committed a "gaffe" in asserting "I don't think we can win" the war on terror -- by quoting his "old colleague Michael Kinsley" [editorial and opinion editor of the Los Angeles Times], who claimed that "a gaffe is when you tell the truth."

After fellow Lou Dobbs guest Karen Tumulty, TIME magazine national political correspondent, was more critical of the comment Bush had made that morning during an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show, Brownstein said he wanted to "defend the president." Brownstein added:

I think the president was acknowledging that honestly to the American people that this is a world we are going to have to live in for a very long time. It may not always be a hot war as it is now, but it's going to be an ongoing condition. And he basically said what everybody deep down, I think, knows to be true.

So if, by Brownstein's account, Bush told the truth, Media Matters for America would like to know what Brownstein thinks the president was doing on July 30, when, as writer and blogger Joshua Micah Marshall noted, Bush said the following: "We have a clear vision on how to win the war on terror and bring peace to the world."

—M.K.