Tony Blair’s shellshocked appearance during his initial statement earlier this morning offers the best rebuttal yet to the sleazy Michael Moore-style attack on President Bush’s behavior on the morning of September 11. It would have been a disaster for Bush to have spoken as the choked-up Blair was. This is intended as no criticism of Blair, who was clearly under a far different sort of burden at the G-8 than Bush was sitting in a classroom in Sarasota. But Blair is not the leader of the free world, Bush is, and had he seemed unable to collect himself — as would surely have been the case in that first hour after Andy Card told him about the attack on America — I can’t imagine what the day would have been like. Not that the president’s first words on 9.11, an hour after the attacks, were strong and focused. But they were more controlled.