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Originally Posted by cthulu23
Bush did say that, if given the opportunity, he would repeat the same photo op. His presidency has not exactly been known for a willingness to admit mistakes, although that can possibly be blamed on Rove and the other image makers who may not want to admit errors so close to an election. This may or may not blow up in there face.
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Publicly admitting mistakes and learning from them can be two very different things. And, as you pointed out, admitting them in an election year is frowned upon by current political advisors. I'm sure there are some candidates who could pull it off (Clinton or Reagan for example) but many can't or won't take that risk.
As far as whether he'd do that speech/photo op again I suspect that he sees it as something he did for Tommy Franks and views it as a sign of strong leadership that he supported his General in what he said he needed at risk of great political and personal attack. I think it says quite a bit about Bush's character that he hasn't passed the buck on making the "major combat is over" statement. Some will say it's his stubborness in admitting an error but, at least in this case, I think it has more to do with loyalty to Franks.