Analysis: Bush Record Mixed on Disasters

WASHINGTON -- Disaster has been both the making and the undoing of President Bush.

Bush's bearing after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 _ tough yet empathetic _ felt right to the public. The attacks transformed a presidency that had been searching for purpose, and he rode voters' support to a second term despite questions about the economy and the war in Iraq.

He was far less sure-footed when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. He stumbled through his initial appearances in the disaster zone, leaving the impression of a president distant from the immense suffering. His presidency _ like the region _ has never quite recovered from its faltering early reaction.

When tragedy strikes, presidents are expected to be national consoler _ figures who affirm the grief even as they chart a path out of it. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't.

President Bush's father, in the middle of a what became his losing re-election campaign in 1992, was slammed for his administration's lackluster response to Hurricane Andrew. By contrast, Bill Clinton rebuilt his embattled presidency partially on the strength of his commanding reaction to the Oklahoma City bombings.

The current President Bush has had plenty of experience with disaster.

When the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003, raining debris over Texas and Louisiana and killing its seven-member crew, Bush offered comfort to families by phone and fought tears on television. In 2004, Florida was hit by four hurricanes, prompting a president seeking re-election to pay five storm-focused visits to that politically crucial state.

Periodically since he launched the Iraq war in 2003, Bush has held emotional private meetings with relatives of U.S. soldiers lost in battle.

This week, Bush was called again to comforter-in-chief duty. On Monday, an apparently lonely and troubled Virginia Tech student had gunned down 32 people at the Blacksburg, Va., school before killing himself.

Bush reacted that day from the White House, then flew Tuesday to the southwestern Virginia campus to hug families, sign a memorial and attend a convocation where his presence received a standing ovation. Speaking to young people worn thin by fear and grief, Bush encouraged them to lean where he does: on family, friends and faith.

"On this terrible day of mourning, it's hard to imagine that a time will come when life at Virginia Tech will return to normal," the president said. "But such a day will come. And when it does, you will always remember the friends and teachers who were lost yesterday, and the time you shared with them, and the lives they hoped to lead."

He stood out in comparison to other speakers. Virgina Tech President Charles Steger's glowing tribute to the tenure of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was jarring. And Kaine spoke too casually of "grieving and sadness by the boatload."