And good morning, Playbookers. It's Wednesday, August 25th. I'm Rugglementevalin, and this is your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

We try our best around here to sift through the competing narratives each and every day, and present to you, our dear listener, something of a coherent

story about what's happening next in D.C. But this is one of those weeks in American politics

when it's best to just lay out some possibilities, especially across the three great challenges

that President Joe Biden is facing right now.

First topic, Afghanistan, here's what things stand.

Biden is aiming to stick to the August 31st deadline to end the Afghanistan evacuation.

But the Washington Post reports that he's ordering a contingency plan.

For what it's worth, the story mentions that the stance, quote,

did little to quell the frustration of the president's adversaries and allies at home and abroad about his handling of the withdrawal.

Now, the media's view, Biden's evacuation is an unmitigated disaster.

That is every statement is at odds with the reality on the ground,

and the botched pullout will have long-term political damage

in 2022-2020. When it comes to the White House, the administration's view is that the media

narrative is several days behind actual events on the ground. In voter judgments about foreign policy,

no American debts equals no political price to pay. So nothing is more important than wrapping

up the operation before

the 31st, and removing thousands of American troops have had target for terrorists to hit.

Here's our read on Afghanistan. It's true that until about yesterday, there was a noticeable

gap in coverage between the pace of evacuations at the airport in Kabul and the Harron Fire

headlines. In fact, in 10 and the Harron Fire headlines.

In fact, in 10 days, no U.S. casualties and 70,000 people evacuated is a logistical feat.

...