Prometheus 6

Leadership: Now, the Nation Needs Answers More Than Exhortations
By Lewis L. Gould
Sunday, April 18, 2004; Page B01

AUSTIN

There comes a moment in almost every presidency when an unpleasant bit of reality intrudes upon the happy routine of striking media poses, harvesting reelection money and rubbing the egos of political allies. It's a moment when the unique burdens of the Oval Office begin to weigh upon its occupant more heavily than before, when a sense of impending tragedy threatens to overwhelm any countervailing assumption of divine, or even just plain political, purpose.

…In any presidency, there is the temptation to do only those things that the holder of the office finds pleasant. For Bush, the cheers of the crowd in a banquet hall filled with campaign donors are sweet music. That audience needs no persuasion. The president's aura and his vigor are enough to satisfy its psychic needs. But when the American people face life-and-death choices, with no good end in view, they look to their president not as a cheerleader or a sermonizer. They want instead the steadying reassurance of a person with a clear sense of where the nation should go and how it will get there.

Citizens are prepared to "stay the course" when they have a pilot who explains the dangers ahead, options available and troubles to be surmounted. What the nation got on Tuesday night were the words of a presidential preacher and an adroit campaigner. No president can be successful in this modern world without those qualities. But what the president experienced on Tuesday night, in the most painful public way, is the reality that a chief executive with only those attributes at his command falls short. The ability to persuade and convince, which Bush up to this point has not shown that he possesses, could well determine whether the American people will give him four more years in the modern presidency.