Bush awaits judgment of voters

Bush awaits judgment of voters
President says GOP will finish strong in midterm campaign

Updated: 9:57 a.m. CT Nov 7, 2006

PENSACOLA, Fla., Nov. 6 - These are trying times for President Bush. On the last day of the last campaign that will affect him directly, he came here as a favor to his brother on behalf of the Republican candidate for governor. Only the Republican candidate for governor skipped the event. Too busy, he said, to be with the president of the United States.

So it goes these days. Bush shrugged it off and delivered a robust speech, firing up a crowd of Republicans and defiantly predicting victory. Any doubt he may harbor, he kept to himself. Any feelings of regret are locked tight inside. The rest of the world may see an unpopular president in the midst of an unpopular war. But Bush soldiers on. He does not publicly stew as other presidents have. He powers through event after event as if he were still the leader the country rallied behind after Sept. 11, 2001.

To his critics, it sometimes seems as if Bush lives in his own world, oblivious or unwilling to accept the shifting reality around him. His is a world of absolutes. "I view this as a struggle of good versus evil," he said the other day about the war with terrorists. To Bush, that is strength, not weakness -- the certitude of conviction, the power of principle. He's "the decider" in a business afflicted by equivocation and thumb-sucking.

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