In Robert Draper’s book on the Bush presidency, “Dead Certain,” Bush says the goal of his Iraq strategy is to play it out until “October-November.” That is when he hopes the Iraq troop increase will finally show enough results to help him achieve the central goal of his remaining time in office: “To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence,” and, he said later, “stay longer.”

UPDATE: Some other highlights from the Draper book:

– Karl Rove told Bush he should not tap Cheney for Vice President
– Bush hopes to make a lot of cash delivering speeches after his presidency is over… while running a “fantastic Freedom Institute”
– Bush “can’t remember” one of the biggest mistakes in post-war Iraq: disbanding the Iraqi army
– The White House staff, including Dan Bartlett and Karl Rove, were “constantly at war” with one another
– Bush cries a lot

UPDATE II: Carpetbagger highlights a few other interesting portions from Draper’s book.

“President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday, using the war zone as a backdrop to argue his case that the buildup of U.S. troops is helping stabilizing the nation.” On his way to the APEC summit in Australia, Bush made a detour to Iraq, landing at an air base in a remote part of Anbar province. Accompanied by security aides Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Stephen Hadley, Bush’s visit came just hours after British forces completed their pullout from Basra. “Residents of Basra cheered the withdrawal.”

UPDATE: “The president stopped at a small building where a Marine Cobra pilot briefed him about the positives and negatives of current troop rotations. He told the president that troops were not getting enough time at home and did not have enough time for training. ‘Morale?’ asked Bush. ‘How’s morale?’ ‘Very high sir,’ the pilot, Capt. Lee Hemming, said.” ”There are some people who might try to deride this trip as a photo opportunity,” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. ”We wholeheartedly disagree.”