WASHINGTON — Few Americans originally thought of George W. Bush as the national leader best equipped to handle the complex political, diplomatic and military tasks of going to war, campaign polls showed. But the president established in his admirable speech to Congress Thursday night that he brings his own strengths to the sorrowful global enterprise that terrorists have forced upon him and on our nation.
Bush declined to pose as an expert or as a great orator. He spoke plainly, simply and with a sense of injury and determination that suited the occasion. He projected a sense of fairness and optimism that must be sustained in American life for years to come.
He did what he had to do to help many troubled Americans sleep again at night — and to deal convincingly with what a French newspaper delicately called la question Bush in the wake of September 11. He described tangible goals, expressed confidence in the ability of America’s armed forces to accomplish them and entrusted a new homeland protection effort to his friend Tom Ridge.
But Bush did something important that he did not have to do for those purposes: He counseled Americans to resist turning the years ahead into an era of fear and overreaction. He again pledged there would be no McCarthyite persecution of Arab Americans at home or a mindless onslaught against Muslims abroad. Expressing what he was not compelled to say lifted the moment toward greatness.
His speech gains Bush time that he desperately needs to plan and act with methodical and single-minded patience in fighting shadowy terrorist vans. He does not always display this quality, even though it helped him reach the presidency last year. He plodded in a race that others ran as a series of sprints. His simple, almost Trumanesque tones Thursday night were a distinct asset. The public does not suspect Bush of verbal guile.
Foreign leaders who visited Bush last week found him similarly composed and moderate in their private conversations in the Oval Office. Bush sought to keep America’s options open and left some visitors with the sense that he had not locked himself into any particular strategy. That did not upset them at this stage.
"He avoided lumping all Islamic countries or groups together. And he was open to outside thoughts, seeming as willing to listen to a suggestion about including Iran in the coalition as he was to listen to a suggestion about excluding Iran from the coalition. It would depend entirely on what they were prepared to do," one official said.
Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell dominated the U.S. part of the talks, while Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others mostly listened. In this phase of the crisis, Bush leaves an impression of listening more closely to aides who favor more traditional forms of U.S. engagement and alliance-management abroad.
An uneasy balance has prevailed between Powell and the White House in the first eight months of this presidency. After a rocky start in which he seemed at times to speak more for himself than the administration, the charismatic ex-general adopted a low profile in recent months. This reduced the risk of Powell overshadowing a president whose interests, experience and reputation were almost entirely invested in domestic affairs.
Doubts about the president’s competence and focus — that is what Le Monde called la question Bush — were revived by Bush’s failure to return to Washington in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon. More precisely, the doubts were revived by the slow and murky explanations offered by the president’s aides, who portrayed Bush as doing exactly what he was told to do by Cheney and the Secret Service.
The image of being led rather than of leading has dogged Bush as candidate and president and is now etched into the global subconscious. It has not been erased; but the president seemed to me to close this latest chapter of doubt about his leadership abilities with his commanding performance Thursday night.
Bush needed time to rise to that level — time he was willingly granted by the American public. This time Americans watched a president stake his career on a speech about America’s role in a newly threatening world, rather than on an explanation of sexual scandal or abuse of power.
It was an appropriate, effective beginning of the global campaign against terror groups, and of the personal campaign Bush must conduct with consistency to put the doubts to rest. He will be called on frequently to demonstrate that it is America’s good fortune to have him as our leader now.
Jim Hoagland can be reached at The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071-9200 or hoaglandj@washpost.com.
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