As will happen from time to time, I am asking: who is this man I voted for twice?

There is no end to my gratitude for the war he has maintained despite a fat, lazy, historically illiterate country that has lost its spine. His Supreme Court nominees, young and energetically pro-Constitution, will protect us from radical activism for decades to come. His tax cuts have let me keep a little more of my own money from an obscenely massive government. I do not want a do-over.

But I would love a couple of explanations. I have long wondered how can a President who brings such strength and clarity to the war can be so soft and blind on the dangers of illegal immigration. And tonight, after his sad speech asking us to buy into this insane bailout, I wonder how a man with such resolve, who has asked us to firm our own resolve in so many ways, can fail to ask us for strength in these tough economic waters.

Hearing President Bush tell us the horrors that await us if we do not drink his Bailout Kool-Aid is more than a little depressing. On the war, I have often analogized that America is like a goofy teenager and Bush is the Dad who fills the vital role of telling the teen the way life is. The teen hates it, but realizes later on how right the Dad was.

Well, on this one Dad has wimped out. The President threw down this litany of things that will happen if we fail to listen to the snake oil from his friends the Fed Chairman and the Treasury Secretary. Every single dark consequence is precisely what SHOULD happen in a country where the public and private sector both failed to see the ill wisdom of extending bad debt into the hands of people who were wholly unable to pay it back.

Wise leadership means telling us tough times lie ahead, but we can lick them. Wise leadership means taking bold steps like suspending capital gains taxes so that investors will still invest, even in a recovering market. Wise leadership means suppressing the urge for a quick, expensive fix.

George W. Bush is one of the finest people to occupy the White House in modern times. His rightness on the biggest issues means I will never regret his eight-year term.

But I cannot hide my disappointment. I pray that his likely successor, John McCain, smells the public distaste for this bailout and will stick up for frugality and maturity by giving America the message it needs to hear. Heaven knows we did not hear that tonight.

Have PoliticalMavens.com delivered to your inbox in a daily digest by clicking here