George Bush always said that he didn't talk to pollsters during the White House Policy development process. iraq_national_strategy_20051130.pdf makes it clear that he doesn't talk to them, because he doesn't want to distract them while they are formulating the policy. Scott Shane notes that the principal author of the strategy for victory is public opinion researcher Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who joined the N.S.C. staff as a special adviser in June.. You can see this by downloading
iraq_national_strategy_20051130.pdf, opening it, holding down the control key and typing d. I did so and, as promisted by Shane I saw "Author: feaver_p."

I must say I am surprised and disappointed, not because the strategy is a pr strategy (that was obvious) nor because political calculations come first at the White House, nor even because www.whitehouse.gov demonstrates computer illiteracy again, but by Mr Shane's affiliation. He is a reporter at the New York Times who, by rights ought to be shmoozing sources and misplacing his loyalty. How can it be that I learned about this gem in plain (cntrl d) view from a MSM reporter and not from a blogger ?

Shane explains

The 35-page document released this week by the White House before President Bush's speech at the United States Naval Academy is called "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq." But a more immediate goal appeared to be victory at home, in the latest of numerous attempts by the administration to turn around flagging public support for the war.

While White House officials said the National Security Council document contained contributions from many federal departments, its creation and presentation strongly reflected the public opinion research of Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who joined the N.S.C. staff as a special adviser in June.

Dr. Feaver was recruited after he and Duke colleagues presented to administration officials their analysis of polls about the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004. They concluded that Americans would support a war with mounting casualties on one condition: that they believe it would ultimately succeed.

[snip]

This is not really a strategy document from the Pentagon about fighting the insurgency," said Christopher F. Gelpi, Dr. Feaver's colleague at Duke and co-author of the research on American tolerance for casualties. "The Pentagon doesn't need the president to give a speech and post a document on the White House Web site to know how to fight the insurgents. The document is clearly targeted at American public opinion."

[snip]

The role of Dr. Feaver in preparing the strategy document came to light through a quirk of technology. In a portion of the document usually hidden from public view but accessible with a few keystrokes, the plan posted on the White House Web site showed the document's originator, or "author" in the software's designation, to be "feaver-p."

According to Matt Rozen, a spokesman for Adobe Systems, which makes the Acrobat software used to prepare the document, that entry indicated that Dr. Feaver created the original document that, with additions and editing, was eventually posted on the Web. There is no way to know from the text how much he wrote.