The crowd leapt to its feet like it was spring-loaded. Applause thundered in the cavernous room like surf crashing on rocks.

There was emotion in that ovation. There was joy at seeing the president of the United States in our own city. There was civic pride that was aching to surge back after months of being beaten down by riots, protests and harsh headlines.

What cynics miss

And there was a high-voltage electric current of patriotism — the lump-in-the-throat, goose-bumps kind that Americans feel when fighter jets split the sky during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The whole world was watching.

Most news reports made the crowd at the Museum Center sound like 800 fat cats, business suits and Republicans. I guess they did not interview anyone like the woman who sat next to me. She was the wife of a cop and the mother of a Marine, thrilled like a kid on Christmas to get a ticket to see President Bush. The glow of joy on her face when she shook his hand was a refreshing antidote to the jaded cynicism that journalists wear like a badge.

I overheard a woman behind me say she had to shake herself now and then as she waited, thrilled with the sudden realization that THE president was going to stand only 10 yards away.

This is why Mr. Bush came to Cincinnati. This is why he speaks directly to Americans in the heartland, bypassing the elite opinion filters in New York and Washington.

Mr. Bush was direct. Forceful. Persuasive. Articulate. Respectful. Presidential. He was nothing at all like the editorial cartoon drawn by angry liberals. A callow frat boy with low-watt intellect does not stand up in front of the world, in the glaring lights of 25 TV cameras, and present a rational, calm, airtight speech outlining the moral reasons why America must be ready for war against Iraq.

“Many Americans have raised legitimate questions,” he acknowledged — showing far more respect for opposing viewpoints than most anti-war protesters show to him.

The case is made

“Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction,” he said. And he laid out the proof: brutal torture of children while their parents are forced to watch; training and assistance to terrorism; satellite photos showing the growing threat of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

To those who masquerade their rigid anti-war ideology behind demands for “proof,” he warned, “The smoking gun could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

“There is no easy or risk-free course of action,” he said. “We refuse to live in fear.”

And at that, the crowd stood again, just as America must stand up to terrorism — with the same steel-reinforced resolve we see in our leader, the commander in chief of the most powerful and noble nation on earth.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.

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