Yes, Bush and a large portion of his administration were perfectly happy to hug it out with the kumbaya chorus from CAIR.
In sympathy with the past administration, I think that a lot of us just couldn’t believe that there was a segment of the population (and it turns out to be a huge segment) who could plot and carry out such egregious acts. GWB and many others wanted to believe that there were honest Muslims out there who wanted to do the right thing. They just couldn’t believe that the “right” thing in the eyes of Al Awlaki was to kill us all.