Speaking to reporters in Cleveland on this fifth anniversary of the famous "Mission Accomplished" banner, Senator John McCain claimed that he thought the now-comical banner was a bad idea at the time, but that President Bush should not be blamed for it. McCain is more right than most people know: There was much debate in the White House over what message to send with the banner. A number of alternate slogans were actually considered and then rejected, leaving "Mission Accomplished" as the ultimate compromise candidate. On a day when we recognize how much has actually gone wrong in the last five years, it's worth looking back at the other options and wondering what might have been:

Rejected for being too revealing of Republican campaign strategies for the next three election cycles.

Then-press secretary Ari Fleischer argued that the sentiment might unnecessarily antagonize even the most docile press, which, said Fleischer, "is my job."

While the early favorite, White House advisers eventually decided against it because it was "too obviously verbatim Cheney."

Colin Powell supported this banner, but Donald Rumsfeld thought it was "too conciliatory and too honest," while Cheney worried that it might "fuck up my duck hunting trip with that wop Scalia."

This was the president's personal suggestion, mainly because he's a big fan of the Tom Cruise movie and thought it looked "so goddamn kickass awesome." The White House team made the banner to humor him and then slipped the "Accomplished" version onto the aircraft carrier before the ceremony, wagering correctly that the president would only read one word before being distracted. Ironically, history has borne out the slogan's essential correctness.