How 9/11 changed George W. Bush’s presidency and legacy

George W. Bush told a hall at his presidential center in Dallas on Wednesday that Sept. 11 was not a law-enforcement event. “This was a war.” Two days to the twenty-fifth anniversary. Andrew Card’s whisper in a Sarasota classroom is still the picture. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said Bush did not sign up to be a wartime president. He became one. The Politics desk files a presidency that started with schools and ended with two occupations. No Child Left Behind did not last a year.

He had been in office eight months. Gallup put him at 90 percent a week after the towers, the highest number the poll has printed. Condoleezza Rice sat with him tonight. They thought the first plane was an accident. Congress stood up Homeland Security and the Patriot Act. About 7,000 American service members died across Afghanistan and Iraq. “I didn’t want us to lose our soul,” he said. Americans soured on forever wars. The wars did not leave. Iraq was never on the 9/11 passenger list, at all.

There was no doubt in my mind that this was not a law-enforcement event. This was a war.

Dallas had two rooms tonight. The Bush Center remembered. The American Airlines Center filled for a Trumpapalooza. Bush goes to Ground Zero on Friday. The gallon is $4.22. Eight weeks from a midterm. A whisper.