Bush's word's were predictable, but carried a collective weight.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Michael Tackett

WASHINGTON _ President Bush staged his simple message Thursday night _ declare (not quite) victory, move on _ in a symbolic setting aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln after one of the more extravagant joy rides in the history of Oval Office travel.

His words were predictable, indeed their essence had been leaked the day before, but the moment nonetheless marked a dramatic pivot by the administration, a hoped-for transition from war to peace, and, at least as important politically, toward post-war prosperity.

With a beautiful sun behind him, a shimmering Pacific Ocean beneath him, and hundreds of cheering sailors in front of him, Bush aired, in effect, the first commercial of his re-election campaign. Though he sounded notes of caution about unfinished business in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism, he made plain that voters could trust him on the issue that matters most: their personal security. He offered proper grace notes to those assembled in uniform.

There was nothing new in what he said, yet it carried a collective weight. In his father's time, he might have simply said "stay the course." Wisely, he chose different language. Democrats were put on notice that Bush would readily drape himself in patriotism and his successes as commander in chief.

Bush announced the start of the war from the White House. He effectively declared the end of it from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Somewhere, Michael Deaver, the image impresario for Ronald Reagan, must have been smiling.

The prologue started hours earlier, with Bush arriving as the co-pilot of an S-3B Viking jet, wearing a flight suit and looking the part of a well-aged fighter jock, complete with a post-flight swagger.