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Remember, the fatality and casualty rates are higher in 2004 than 2003; higher since Hussein's capture than before; higher since "sovereignty" was turned over on June 28 than before. You can slice and dice the data anyway you choose, but it's not progress.
The important thing here is just how frequently our media has bought into the Bush administration's implicit "light at the end of the tunnel" arguments regarding Iraq. They have been forever arguing that "things will get better when..." which the media tends to parrot and then quickly forget when things actually don't get better - and, in fact, they keep getting worse. Not a lot worse as measured by the number of US casualties (though perhaps a lot worse in other ways), but noetheless worse.
Ah, I remember when they jumped on Howard Dean for ruining their little party when he dared to point out that capturing Saddam wouldn't make the U.S. any safer. The more (but still hackish) honest pundits retreated to the criticism that "well, sure, it may not make Americans at home any safer but it'll make our troops WHO ARE Americans [well, some aren't, but...] safer and how dare that nasty Hoho say otherwise." Wrong again.