Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq.
Inevitably it's going to cause some terrible misogynist backlash, and I assume we'll look forward to eight years of jaw-droppingly sexist statements - the way we listened to eight years of racism around the presidency. It will be an argument before it's a conversation. But at least it's being had.