The George W. Bush that Americans knew before Sept. 11, 2001, had no grand plan or sweeping vision. He talked of smaller government and a big tax cut. He wanted a "humble" foreign policy -- no unnecessary mucking about in chaotic foreign places like, say, Afghanistan.

Lacking either charisma or great intellect, the early Mr. Bush came across as a competent but rather ordinary man who had succeeded less by his own industry than through his father's contacts.

Wits in his home state of Texas called the junior Mr. Bush "Shrub," and that seemed just about perfect.

Then came Sept. 11. Like a rookie pitcher who sees a grand slam home run sail over his head, Mr. Bush suddenly found himself in a crisis that demanded qualities of leadership that few thought he possessed. Suddenly, every eye in the stadium was upon him. How has he managed and how has the past year changed him?

In the early days after the terrorist attacks, Mr. Bush looked at sea. One moment he was bellicose, speaking of a "crusade" against evil, the next he was choking up. "I'm a loving guy," he said, lip quivering.

But it didn't take him long to set himself straight. In a series of remarks and speeches that September, he showed a new seriousness and sense of purpose that has stayed with him ever since.

In those addresses, he set down the outlines of a long and massive campaign against global terrorism.

"We are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom," he said in a ringing speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress. "Whether we bring our enemies to justice or justice to our enemies, justice will be done."

Climbing the ruins at ground zero, he grabbed a bullhorn and said: "I can hear you. The rest of the world can hear you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon."

Suddenly, the detached son of privilege seemed a man on a mission, driven, angry, righteous and sure of himself.

The man who once swore to avoid foreign entanglements is now committing his country to a global struggle that could keep it tied up in faraway places for years to come.

The man who wanted a more modest American position in the world is now claiming the right to use pre-emptive military force to remove foreign leaders, such as Saddam Hussein, who might threaten the United States and the world.

The man who campaigned for smaller government is now presiding over a massive buildup of the U.S. security, immigration, military and intelligence bureaucracies.

Mr. Bush will never possess the intelligence or eloquence of Bill Clinton, much less of a great wartime leader like Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although he delivers his ghostwritten speeches with reasonable skill, he is often awkward and repetitive in unscripted appearances. His grasp of the nuances of foreign policy is still dubious.

But the transformed, post-Sept.-11 Mr. Bush has other qualities: moral clarity, confidence, patience, and above all, determination.

Americans sense that and they like it. Before Sept. 11, Mr. Bush's scores in opinion polls were middling at best. Afterward, they soared to an unheard-of 90 per cent. They are back down to a more human, but still healthy, 66 per cent.

Whether he can sustain that is an open question. Americans were in an unsettled mood on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks and polls show that they are more worried about the troubled economy than the threat of terrorism.

Critics say Mr. Bush muffed the crisis in confidence that followed the accounting scandals at corporate giants such as Enron and WorldCom, pushed the government budget into deficit by insisting on his tax cut despite the costly war, hurt Washington's free-trade credentials by approving billions in subsidies to farmers and alienated allies by spurning the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the Rome treaty on a world criminal court.

Then there is the plan to overthrow Iraq's Mr. Hussein. A recent poll showed that two-thirds of Americans oppose it unless Mr. Bush can provide a clear explanation and persuade U.S. allies to go along.

So, Mr. Bush faces plenty of challenges that will test him sorely. But given his sure-footed performance of the past year, it would be foolish to underestimate him again.

Question his goals if you like, criticize his tactics too, but never doubt his will.
mgee@globeandmail.ca