The NYT's Elizabeth Bumiller analyzes Dubya's news conference from Wednesday morning -- which happened after 31 U.S. troops died in a helicopter crash, but didn't voluntarily mention it -- in light of an aggressive White House communications strategy to make put the Iraq election in the best possible light.

Part of that strategy? Not defining what success would be.

An exerpt:

President Bush's opening statement at his news conference on Wednesday was striking for what it left out: any mention of the 31 Americans who died overnight in the crash of a Marine helicopter in Iraq, the largest number of American deaths in a single incident since the war began.

Mr. Bush instead focused on his long-term goal of "ending tyranny in our world," and then cast the Iraqi election coming Sunday as part of a march of freedom around the globe. He said that if he had told the reporters in the room a few years before that the Iraqi people would be voting, "you would look at me like some of you still look at me, with a kind of blank expression."

The president's words were part of an aggressive White House communications strategy this week and next to frame the risky Iraqi election - a critical test of his assertion that the country is on the path to stability - in the best possible light. The goal, a Bush adviser said, was not only to lower expectations but to avoid any definition of success.

The newly installed secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and other top administration officials and military commanders will fan out this week and appear on the influential Sunday morning television interview programs to echo Mr. Bush's comments about the Iraqi election.

When the president was asked to define what a "credible" turnout in Iraq would be, he quickly side-stepped, saying only, "The fact they're voting in itself is successful."