Republicans Cut and Run From 'Stay The Course'?

The Republicans seems to have finally realized that Americans see 'stay the course' as the empty rhetoric that it is. RNC Chair Ken Mehlman's interview on Meet The Press seems to imply to me they're phasing out that buzzword and replacing it with... a new buzzword- 'adapting to win'. That's leadership, baby!

From the transcript-

MR. GREGORY: This is something that he also said last Sunday during a campaign speech. “The fact is”—this is Senator Lieberman speaking—“I have openly and clearly disagreed with and criticized the president for, among other things: not winning the support of our allies in the run-up to the war; not having a plan to win the peace; not putting enough troops on the ground; putting an American in charge of the Iraqi oil supply. And I said that if I were president, I would ask Secretary Rumsfeld to resign.” Given your respect for the credibility of his views, do you acknowledge that he’s right on these points?

MR. MEHLMAN: Look, the fact is that our mission in the war in Iraq is critical. We agree on that; we agree it’s wrong to cut and run. But look, we’re not coming in and saying “Stay the course.” The choice in this election is not between “Stay the course” and “Cut and run,” it’s between “Win by adapting” and “Cut and run.”

Let me tell you what we’re doing. The fact is, before the successful Iraqi elections, the number of troops went up from 137,000 to 167,000. That’s adapting to win. Recently, the increased troops in Baghdad, adapting to win. We changed how the training of Iraqi forces occurred to involve more Iraqis.

That’s adapting to win.

Good grief.

Is this like when Sec. Rumsfeld and others (temporarily) rebranded the 'war on terror' as 'global struggle against extremism'? If you can't win the war... repackage it! It's all about marketing to these people. They spend so much time looking for ways to get their poll numbers up, while remaining incredibly delusional as to what the situation on the ground in Iraq now. That's part of the reason so little has been accomplished/changed. It's pretty horrifying if you think about it.

Think Progress has the 'stay the course' highlight reel.

UPDATE: The Daily Show mocked this rhetoric last night as well.

[Hat tip- State of the Day]