Many a progressive pundit, stunned and mystified by the re-election of George W. Bush, opted to concede on the self-reassuring premise that Bush’s mysterious appeal had nothing to do with the fledgling charisma of the untried president many knew prior to the cowardly attacks perpetrated by Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001. Some believe that it wasn’t until after we were attacked that President Bush came into his own; in other words, he grew up.
