Bush’s sentimentality has only been stoked by the circumstances. Of all the poignant moments for the president during the aftermath of the attack, his first trip to New York left an indelible impression. After he stood atop the rubble and bullhorned his way into the hearts of the firemen there, he met with some 400 grieving family members. The by-the-clock president stayed about an hour past his scheduled time to talk with the families. A mother of a Port Authority policeman who had died on duty gave the president her son’s badge (the one he held up during his speech to Congress). He has carried it with him in his pocket at times and keeps it in on his dresser in the residence as a reminder.
The president, who sometimes forgets names, has a keen memory for personal details about people. One testimonial that has stuck in his mind is that of an Islamic woman who told him that many women who wear traditional dress are afraid to go outside for fear of abuse. It’s a moving detail that he has woven into his public discourse. He even mentioned the plight of “women of cover” in his press conference last week.
When he first used that expression, I thought he misspoke. But his aides insist that he heard it at used at the Islamic Center of Washington. The woman who answers the phone there was less sure. So I called an expert. “I’ve heard ‘women who cover’ but not ‘women of cover,’” says Egyptian-born Leila Ahmed, a professor of women’s studies at Harvard Divinity School. Ms. Magazine, for example, uses “women who cover.” But George W. Bush may have coined the latest addition to the P.C. lexicon. “I kind of like it,” Ahmed says.
Bush has felt very strongly about speaking out against anti-Muslim sentiment from the start. The day after the attack, Bush held a cabinet meeting with the House leadership. Michigan’s David Bonior, whose state has the largest Arab-American community, spoke of his fear of reprisals against Muslims. “David, you’re absolutely correct. We don’t want to happen to them what happened to Norm Mineta’s family,” he said.
During World War II, when future Secretary of Transportation Mineta was 11 years old, his family was sent to an internment camp for Japanese-Americans. Mineta had talked with Bush about the experience back in January, when he was interviewing for his job in the cabinet. One detail that really hit home for the president: the government even confiscated Mineta’s baseball bat because it was considered a weapon. Bush brought up the attacks on Muslim-Americans with Mineta again before his congressional address, in which he sharply condemned them.
“Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if President Roosevelt said those things. But we’ll never know,” Mineta said in an interview Monday, between meetings on airport security. “We are seeing shades of what we experienced in 1942. The big difference this time is that the political leadership is responding differently, and I think the president has just been terrific on this issue.”
The president’s emotion permeates his speeches and even his decision-making. Bush and his wife have been really struck by the horrid conditions in which Afghan children live. Bush not only wanted to do something for them in the short term, but he’s been thinking of the long-term goal of changing America’s reputation for materialism and hedonism among Islamic youth. “We need a way to connect American values with the citizens in Muslim countries so they can see the true character of America,” the president told Karen Hughes in a speech meeting last Monday.
The idea of a charity drive for children by children came up at that meeting. Karl Rove, top strategist and the White House’s resident historian, had mentioned to Hughes earlier that the March of Dimes had played just such a role during the Depression. They decided to update the concept, this time collecting a dollar from American kids for their Afghan counterparts. Hughes walked out of the speech meeting and told top domestic policy aide Josh Bolten, “I think we may have committed policy.” Bolten–the West Wing’s Mr. Fix-It–was dispatched to work out the details with the Red Cross, which would run the charity.
Yesterday, the White House announced that it had received 90,000 offerings so far. “One way to fight evil is to fight it with kindness and love and compassion,” Bush told a group of about 80 kids gathered for an event at the American Red Cross headquarters. which is around the corner from the White House. He brushed off reporters’ questions about news that U.S. forces had bombed a Red Cross warehouse in Afghanistan. In this case, he was keeping his emotions about the apparent accident hidden.
