BUSH - Finds his true voice

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A President Finds His True Voice

Calm and commanding in private, warm and dignified in public, Bush rises to the occasion in the wake of terror

By Howard Fineman NEWSWEEK Sept. 24 issue — Ushered into the Oval Office, the quartet of senators expected only a brief, pro forma sit-down with a harried president. It was, after all, day three of the New World. The New York Democrats wanted $20 billion for their devastated city but doubted he’d commit to so large a number. The Republicans from Virginia, home to the Pentagon and the military elite, wanted to hear fighting words from the commander in chief but assumed the session was a photo op in the most nightmarishly momentous week since Pearl Harbor.

Bush passed his first tests, but like the medieval knight, he’s only begun his quest—and ours—for security and a new architecture to preserve it. The president came to power with “unilateralist” tendencies but must now assemble the most complex diplomatic armada since the Allies in World War II. He lined up—in some cases was handed—support from the United Nations, NATO, Russia and ANZUS. The tricky part will be winning backing (or forbearance) from the world’s Islamic states. Bush can no longer allow them to sanction or ignore Osama bin Laden’s twisted theory of holy war. But insisting that they become allies, as Bush is doing, could open them to “de-stabilization” by fundamentalists, who see America as satanic. It’s a labyrinth more tangled than the one Bush’s father, with far more experience, had to navigate.

Americans rally round a president in a crisis but require a credible figure in the role. Bush, by the end of the week, had become that man in the voters’ eyes. By an 82-11 percent margin, voters in the new NEWSWEEK Poll approved of the way he was handling his job. That’s about where Roosevelt’s rating stood immediately after Pearl Harbor, and higher than the rating received by any other modern president, including Bush’s father during the gulf war. An even higher ratio—89-8—specifically approved of his handling of the terrorist crisis. And by a big margin of 83-13 percent, voters said that the president is coming across as a “strong leader.” All that unity produced results in Congress: a practically unanimous use-of-force authorization, $40 billion for home defense and reconstruction.

The challenges at home are just as tough. Bush has called Americans to “war,” but to win it will take years and, almost certainly, American casualties. In the NEWSWEEK Poll, voters favor attacking bin Laden by a 54-40 percent margin; they want to go after terrorist bases and countries that harbor terrorists by 71-21 percent. But will that resolve last if our losses mount—or, worse, if our actions provoke new terrorist attacks? For in the new world war, civilians are combat-ants, whether they want to be or not.

Providing a state-of-the-art “homeland defense”—Washington’s new buzz term—will be costly. “Hardening” the transportation, communications and energy infrastructure could cost a half-trillion dollars; ongoing personnel costs could be staggering. The much-predicted clash between the old and the young could finally materialize as a recession shrinks the “surpluses” and defense spending absorbs the rest.

Security will require another type of sacrifice—of freedoms. In the NEWSWEEK Poll, voters say they are willing to give up privacy in air travel, but they are more skeptical of other measures, such as surveillance of e-mail and phone conversations. By a 62-32 percent margin, they reject “special surveillance” of Arab-Americans. Yet even before last week’s attacks, the Senate intelligence committee had voted extra funds for Internet surveillance and “profiling” measures, and agitation for more is sure to mount.

The challenges are enormous. And now it is the Bush family and its liegemen, wedded to public service for 50 years, who are summoned to meet them. Last Monday night—the last day of The World As We Knew It—Bush’s parents came to Washington, though their son had flown off to talk about education in Florida. Dad had a speech to give, and groused to friends that too many (in the media especially) underestimated his son.

Four days later “Old 41” was back in the capital, sitting with Barbara in the first pew of the National Cathedral as their eldest son spoke. “In every generation,” the 43d president said, “the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are freedom’s home and defender. And the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time.” When the son returned to the pew, his father patted him on the hand as if to say “Well done.” And the country, gladly, agreed.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001


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