They Will Follow Us Here.

"This war is different than the other wars we've been in," Mr. Bush said a few hours after his news conference while sitting beneath a portrait of George Washington. "If we leave, they will follow us here."

Daniel Henninger, WSJ, RCP in an oval office conversation with the president:

But it is obvious that he regards the threat to the American people as palpable.

"My biggest issue that I think about all the time," Mr. Bush says, "is the next attack on America, because I am fully aware that there are people out there that would like nothing more than to have another spectacular moment by killing American people. And they're coming. And we've got to do everything we can to stop them. That's why we need to be on offense all the time." This, he insists, is the justification for the terrorist wiretaps, the Patriot Act, the interrogations and the Iraq war.

Mr. Bush goes on offense himself in the kind of plain speech that maddens his detractors but may endear him in the heartland: "Maybe it's not nuanced enough for some of the thinkers and all that stuff--that's fine. But that's exactly what a lot of people like me think."

Plain speaking. Reminds me of another president from the heartland, who said, "I never did give them hell, I just told the truth and they thought it was hell." Harry Truman also said "Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you."