Free Republic

As he did yet again in Thursday's fireside chat with a country mired in rancor and angst, George W. Bush demonstrated the remarkably adept ability to rise to the moment. Just as his critics are pronouncing him poll-dead and his second term an abject failure, he does two things that mark him as a leader destined to join the ranks of America's greatest presidents. In important speeches, like the president's compassionate reassurance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina that their lives will be put back together and their communities rebuilt, Bush's rhetoric connects. It attaches the urgency of the moment,...

WASHINGTON - President Bush Saturday underscored his goal of a massive rebuilding effort to make storm-battered Gulf Coast communities “better and stronger,” brushing aside growing Republican worries about the impact on the budget deficit. “Out of this tragedy comes an opportunity to harness the good and gracious spirit of America, and deliver new hope to neighborhoods that were suffering before the storm,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. Bush has said the federal government will assume the bulk of the costs for what he says will be “one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen.” He...