In his interviews for a new book, President Bush told Robert Draper his real plans for Iraq:

One answer lies in the remarkably forthright interviews Bush gave author Robert Draper for a new book coming out today. As Jim Rutenberg wrote in Sunday’s New York Times, Bush earlier this year explained his Iraq strategy to Draper this way: “I’m playing for October-November.”

Writes Rutenberg: “That is when he hopes the Iraq troop increase will finally show enough results to help him achieve the central goal of his remaining time in office: ‘To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence,’ and, he said later, ‘stay longer.’

Chew on that.