White House has high stake in Iraqi polls

Bush had sought to declare victory before the polls even opened in Iraq yesterday by arguing that just the fact that Iraqis are voting means success. The election "will add to the momentum of democracy," Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

Hours after it aired, however, National Security Adviser Steve Hadley informed the president that a rocket had hit the US Embassy in Baghdad, killing at least two Americans who worked there and wounding four others. The White House reaction to the attack echoed Bush's insistence that violence will not dissuade Iraqis from voting.