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Jewish World Review Nov. 6, 2001 / 20 Mar-Cheshvan, 5762
Chris Matthews
A week ago tonight, George W. Bush hit the strike
zone in the House that Ruth Built. He did it sporting
the most revered insignia in America today: that of
the New York Fire Department.
This is about knowing what to do at the moment
you have to do it -- and then doing it. It's about that
"grace under pressure" that Hemingway gave as his
very definition of courage.
Every great leader, a Canadian pollster once told
me, must have three things going for him or her:
motive, passion and spontaneity. It does no good to
have done your homework.
When you get up there on the stage -- or the
pitching mound -- you need to feel the crowd's
energy and act on it. You must be more than an
officeholder. You need to be the leader of the
moment as well as the nation.
Like the great shortstops, you can't plant yourself in
a fixed position. You need to respond to the ball
when hit.
It could be argued that this spontaneity, this ability
to respond, is the essence of the American spirit.
We are not a nation of plodders or of historic
grudge-keeping. We do what we feel like. Right
now, we feel like making sure that the horror of
Sept. 11 does not enter the history books without
adding an entry on the other side of the ledger. The
president said it first and best: We will either bring
the killers to justice or bring justice to the killers.
But our greater mission is to champion that sense of
freedom that lies at our country's heart. We're not
talking Democratic or Republican here, but
American.
"When an American says that he loves his country,"
Adlai Stevenson once said, "he means that he loves
an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and
in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
Stevenson understood democracy better than most.
He was the Democrats' candidate who had to take
on Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. Ike
was a political natural. He possessed that magic
ingredient of spontaneity that President Bush flashed
from the pitching mound on Tuesday. It's what we
like to see in our leaders. We like to know that,
amid all the Secret Service protection and the
words crafted by speechwriters, there's a living,
breathing person in that president of ours.
That is what this fight is all about.
Twenty-five years ago, there were only three dozen
democracies in the world.
Today, there are 120. Today, the world listens to
our music, watches our movies, wears our clothes.
If you get to travel around the world, as I've been
privileged to do, you'll discover this fact of the 21st
century for yourself.
We -- and that means freedom -- are winning the
big wars worldwide. Latin America, Asia and
Africa are finding and fighting their way toward
democracy and open expression of thought. They
want to be more like us, less like the tyrannies of
old.
Terrorism, never forget, is the weapon of the weak
wielded against the strong. It is the desperate, brutal
back-swipe at the winners delivered by the
embittered losers.
The way to win this fight is to remember and honor
the victims and never, ever forget the
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