McCain: Volunteers not Shoppers after 9/11

I don't often criticize the President here, not wanting to steal any MSM talking points, but I think John McCain is on the money in this statement:

"I believe that the big mistake that our leadership of our nation made after 9-11 is we told people to go shopping and we told them to take a trip," McCain told students at a military prep school in this early voting state.

A month after the attacks, Bush said, "We cannot let the terrorists achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't conduct business or people don't shop."

People would have joined the military or volunteer groups had the president urged them to do so, McCain said. "I think Americans would have responded overwhelmingly and I believe they still will," he said.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks 6 years ago, there was a brief window of opportunity to maintain the new-found patriotism emanating from Left and Right. Even Dan Rather appeared weeping on David Letterman vowing to "give this President anything he wants" (anybody got that clip?). Like McCain said, though, it may still not be too late, and I hope any future President will try to get the whole country behind the war effort, instead of just sending us to the Mall.