For Bush, a Mission and a Defining Moment: ‘ “This,” he told them, “is the purpose of this administration.” …One of the president’s close acquaintances outside the White House said Mr. Bush clearly feels he has encountered his reason for being, a conviction informed and shaped by the president’s own strain of Christianity.

“I think, in his frame, this is what God has asked him to do,” the acquaintance said. “It offers him enormous clarity.” ‘ [While I’m all for people finding themselves, how will the Islamic world (or for that matter our allies) face a war shaped by Christian zealotry?]

‘…Although the current moratorium on presidential criticism in the nation’s capital prohibits most on-the-record carping, there is off-the-record concern, expressed not only by Democrats but also by some Republicans.

They fear that there is something headlong and immature in some of Mr. Bush’s exhortations over the last few days. They wonder if he is making promises he cannot keep and threats he cannot back up.

They note it is impossible to know how ? and how much ? Mr. Bush has really changed, because efforts by the White House to control what gets said about him, and who says it, have been unusually aggressive.

Most of the people in a position to talk knowledgeably about Mr. Bush’s emotions are not talking at all. Those who do talk have often sought the administration’s permission, and they reel off the same adjectives, like focused and resolute, that White House spokesmen do.

Moreover, there are indications that Mr. Bush’s nonchalant, jocular demeanor remains the same. In public, his off-the-cuff language still veers toward the colloquial. In private, say several Republicans close to the administration, he still slaps backs and uses baseball terminology, at one point promising that the terrorists were not “going to steal home on me.” ‘ New York Times [name: “FMHreader”, password: “FMHreader”]