Heckuva Job, part 2

This turned out to be longer than I anticipated, so rather than posting as a comment, I'm making another entry for today. Here I list relevant portions of the Q&A session President Bush had today with reporters about letting Rumsfeld go.

Reporter: Last week you told us that Secretary Rumsfeld would be staying on. Why is the timing right now for [accepting the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld]? And how much does it have to do with the election results?

President Bush: Right.

No, you and [wire service reporters Terence] Hunt and Kyle came in the Oval Office and you asked — Hunt asked me the question one week before the campaign, and basically it was: You going to do something about Rumsfeld and the vice president? And my answer was, you know, they're going to stay on.

And the reason why is I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign.

And so the only way to answer that question and to get you onto another question was to give you that answer. [emphasis is mine]

The truth of the matter is, as well -- I mean, that's one reason I gave the answer. But the other reason why is I hadn't had a chance to visit with Bob Gates yet, and I hadn't had my final conversation with Don Rumsfeld yet, at that point.

[Backpeddling at realization of admission to lies]

Later in the Q&A session, the President decides to add more onto his earlier response, and adds the following:

President Bush: And secondly, I hadn't visited with Bob Gates. I told you, I visited with him last Sunday in Crawford. You can't replace somebody until you know you've got somebody to replace him with. And, finally, I hadn't had my last conversation with Secretary Rumsfeld, which I had yesterday.

So, it seems that President Bush was eager to replace Secretary Rumsfeld, he just needed to find the right person for the job, right? If that's true, here's a question for you: Since Republican leaders were urging the President to remove Secretary Rumsfeld from his position, and he was planning to do just this, why not tell everyone in a press release as this would surely help his party in the election yesterday. My hypothesis: President Bush only decided to replace Secretary Rumsfeld after the election results were clear, contrary to what he stated today.