Bush the evangelist?(on the right)

NEW YORK, MAY 9

WHAT is happening to George W. Bush is that dissenters are moving from criticism of him to just plain hostility to him. Swings in the public mood that emphatic aren't unknown to American history, though these days they are more lacerating because of the diurnal polls that give lapidary attention to wisps of sentiment. No doubt about it, the president's popularity is very low, though the exact meaning of that, and the causes of it, aren't obvious.

Some charges being leveled against Bush would seem to be motivated more by hostility than by analysis, and I have an example, taken from a letter from an old and learned friend. He complains of the "evangelicalism" of the president. "In his third TV debate in the 2000 primaries, Bush said that the political philosopher who had most influenced him was Jesus Christ. Give me a break. Jesus had almost nothing to say about politics, nothing at all directly, and considered politics a distraction."

Well, slow down.

Tom Brokaw is serving as moderator and asks for viewers' questions, getting this: "What political philosopher or thinker ... do you most identify with?"

Candidate Steve Forbes came out with John Locke. Candidate Alan Keyes came out with the Founders. The question was repeated to Governor Bush.

Bush: "Christ, because he changed my heart."