I peruse photos perhaps more than you read articles. The Maliki smile factor is both amusing and revealing. His photo ops with W when contrated with photo ops with Barack are both amusing and revealing. When Maliki is with Bush he smiles the smile of an elevator passenger when someone has farted or he appears deadpan.
With Obama the Maliki smile is like that of a child's first bicycle with a big red ribbon on the handle bars.

Now for the geometry of change. Barack views change on a timeline. A 2 dimensional line that goes from point A to point B that is still subject to 3D forces.

Bush geometry is much more poetic. Picture a father and son looking out onto a beautiful sunset. "Son, the horizon is usually 26 miles away but you can walk all day and it will still be as distant as it is now." "Gee dad, so when I promise a firm time horizon for the withdrawl from Iraq, it will always be far away?"

"Thats my boy".