How Bush Blew It

Late last week, Bush was, by some accounts, down and angry. But another Bush aide described the atmosphere inside the White House as "strangely surreal and almost detached." At one meeting described by this insider, officials were oddly self-congratulatory, perhaps in an effort to buck each other up. Life inside a bunker can be strange, especially in defeat.

T. TRENT GEGAX, ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES, ANDREW MURR, SUSANNAH MEADOWS, JONATHAN DARMAN AND CATHARINE SKIPP IN THE GULF COAST REGION, AND RICHARD WOLFFE, HOLLY BAILEY, MARK HOSENBALL, TAMARA LIPPER, JOHN BARRY, DANIEL KLAIDMAN, MICHAEL ISIKOFF, MICHA,DIGGING OUT GRAPHIC BY ANDREW ROMANO, KARL HUDE, KEVIN HAND AND GRAHAM ROBERTS ,COPING GRAPHIC BY ANDREW ROMANO, RESEARCH BY NEWSWEEK RESEARCH CENTER (DANA GORDON, SAM REGISTER, LISA BERGTRAUM, RENA KIRSCH, SUSAN SZELIGA, RUTH TENENBAUM, JUDY GANELES, ANTHONY SKAGGS)

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