"Left Behind"
That even the awesome clarity of September 11 should have become clouded was due principally to the administration's overuse of it. During the six weeks prior to the second anniversary of the attacks, Mike Allen of The Washington Post reported, the President mentioned September 11 in reference not only to Iraq and Afghanistan and airport security, but also to his energy policy, his tax cuts, unemployment, the deficit, and campaign fund-raising. When asked in July about the $170 million budget for his unopposed 2004 primary campaign, Bush responded, according to Allen, with this retreat to what he clearly considered his unique selling proposition: "Every day, I'm reminded about what 9/11 means to America."

�Joan Didion/NYRB Nov.06.03