Every president addresses a crisis differently. While mired deep in the Vietnam War escalation, Lyndon B. Johnson spoke about America being “guardians at the gate” with a sense of reluctant obligation. After 9/11, George W Bush spoke of terrorists shaking the foundations of buildings but never “shaking the foundation of America.”
Both of those leaders used their rhetoric to justify doing very bad, wrong things, but they at least did the very bad, wrong things while pretending to have a sense of decorum. People hearing their speeches felt that they were taking a situation seriously and attempting to make sense of it.
