So once again we have the Bush White House attempting to inspire America -- and rise in public-opinion polls -- with a valiant struggle to overcome a problem largely of its own making.

First we had 9/11. The Bushies were warned to expect an attack like that; they ignored the warnings -- then built their presidency literally on the rubble of the attack.

Next we had the Iraq War. Bush the Elder ended his war in Iraq and brought the troops home a year before he faced reelection -- and lost. His son, perhaps unconsciously mindful of this precedent, got himself mired in Iraq -- then won reelection by persuading Americans that they shouldn't "change horses" in the middle of a war he didn't have a clue how to conclude.

And now we have Katrina, and the suffering that was so much worse than it would have been if we had a competent federal government.

Bush screwed up all through his youth. Bush rose every time he screwed up. Will the pattern still hold? Well, it hasn't failed him yet. He screws up, difficult problems arise, then he gets people to feel sorry for him because he has to deal with so many difficult problems.