I suppose this would be a candidate for ShrillBlog, but today's
editorial by Tom Friedman actually does a good job of summarizing what's wrong with Bush's response to 9/11. The best quote comes right at the end.
I want a president who can one day restore Sept. 11th to its rightful place on the calendar: as the day after Sept. 10th and before Sept. 12th. I do not want it to become a day that defines us. Because ultimately Sept. 11th is about them - the bad guys - not about us. We're about the Fourth of July.
Our country indeed changed on 9/11; but it also changed on December 7, 1941, and on April 12, 1861. Yet we do not make such a huge deal about either of those days in our calendar--our lately, any day other than 9/11, including July 4.
By making 9/11 the centerpiece and raison d'être of his entire agenda (with the possible exception of NCLB), we are no longer the land of liberty, but a terrorist-fighting vigilante squad. We won't be able to completely erase the association of 9/11 with the horrific events of 2001, but at least we may have a chance--under a different administration--to remember the loss as an important chapter in our nation's history, and not as a terrifying and integral part of our daily experience.