The "missed opportunity" of the tsunami

Last night on CNBC's normally awful show, Scarborough Country, Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnacle destroyed some liberal pundit who was dumb enough to go on and repeat that President Bush's failure to go on TV and express the U.S.'s heartfelt sadness immediately after the tsunami was a "missed opportunity."

I don't have to tell you what Barnacle said. You can imagine. 150,000 dead? An opportunity? And so on.

But the truth is, Ronald Reagan would have made a speech from his own ranch within a day or two, and a beautiful Peggy Noonan classic, at that.

And the truth is, I was wondering for several days: Where the hell is Bush? (Weren't you?)

But the truth is, also: Let's all shut up about Bush. Let's shut up about
Bush's tireless critics. Let's shut up about "opportunities." Let's shut up
about what a wonderful and generous people Americans really are, after all.

This is a time to be quiet and listen and think and mourn and hope.

I wonder if we Americans have it in us.