I had an epiphany when I saw that the administration expended 1.62 billion dollars on PR/propaganda last year. Much of the Bush administration governance is based how one would run a political campaign rather than how one would run a country. Perception is more important than truth. Convincing people to believe in you trumps doing something in which people can believe.
Look at how the President is traveling around the country trying to beef up support for the war. Wouldn't it be better if he could do the "hard work" of diplomacy instead? As Jack Murtha has said, you can't win this war with rhetoric.
Consider the budget which Bush touted as being on track to reduce the deficit. It's presented with a definite PR slant that ignores the astronomical cost of the war. Hey, why bother with reality, when "reduce the deficit" is the soundbite of choice.
Even though the Bush administration frequently focuses on perception, I'm not sure that is all bad; just think of how they've screwed up when they addressed reality head on. 9/ll led to a war on a nation that had nothing to do with it. The need to monitor foreign threats yielded a blatant disregard for FISA. Seniors' plight with health care resulted in Plan B. Maybe we're better off with a PR focus after all.