President Bush’s decision to bring in Tony Snow as the White House spokesperson is being hailed by some as a rare admission of error. But it’s not. Instead, it’s indicative of the President’s leadership style, which treats failures of substance as failures of public relations. Every time things have gone wrong in this administration — from Iraq to the Medicare prescription drug bill to Social Security privatization — the White House decides it needs to revamp its message rather than asking why it might be getting such bad press.

Tony Snow is just another step in this process. Bush’s whole presidency has gone off the rails, so they bring in an outsider to the comically outside-the-loop job of White House spokesperson and it’s supposed to be a new approach.

This quote sums up the attitude I’m talking about:

When asked about Mr. Snow’s more critical comments, the administration official said, “What better way to pop the bubble that people think there is here.”

Senior administration officials consider Mr. Snow to be just the sort of outsider for whom some of their concerned Republican allies have been calling.

Rather than bringing in a grand old man of the party to shake up the White House on substance, they’re hiring a Fox News apparatchik to improve administration propaganda. It’s all too typical.

Update 4/27 12:21 PM: This quote from the Washington Post sums up the White House perspective perfectly:

A variety of Bush advisers suggested that the president is not interested in altering his major decisions or philosophy, but that he recognizes he needs to do a better job communicating in Washington and beyond.

In Washington these days, everything is a communication problem. If only people understood (X), they would love the President.