From a friend who is an unabashed Bush fan and also eminently sensible:
I have to chime in on this. I think everyone is overreacting to the President’s speech. Remember the first debate. Everyone thought the President sucked but all anyone remembered later was “global test.” I don’t think he sounded defeatist at all. My e-mails from my cousins who are stranded in Houston don’t even mention the President. All they care about is when can they go home and will they have a house. The President laid out the course ahead in his speech and only time will tell how this will turn out.
He adds by way of a P.S.: “In the meantime John Bolton is kicking some serious butt at the UN.”