by Tom Ashbrook.

Time for us all to check our clocks on the departure of US troops from Iraq.

That development, said George Bush yesterday, will come under “future presidents, and future governments of Iraq.” In other words, January, 2009 at the earliest – nearly three years from now, when President Bush is no longer in charge.

In a head-turning press conference yesterday, the President conceded he has poured his second term political capital essentially into one pot – the war in Iraq, and that that war is deeply trying the country’s patience and confidence. There was no new plan, and will be no new leadership, said the president, defending Donald Rumsfeld.

But stick with me, he essentially asked, until I’m gone.

This hour On Point: President Bush hands the war to the next president.

Guests:

Bennett Roth, Washington correspondent for The Houston Chronicle

Stephen Hayes, senior writer at The Weekly Standard

Ryan Lizza White House correspondent The New Republic

Anthony Cordesman, Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic and International Studies

David Gergen, professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and former White House advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton