"Not since the terror attacks of 9/11 had his tone been so serious, his demeanor so grave," according to ABC News' Martha Raddatz, who has covered the Bush administration for nearly eight years. "He was not just reading a speech that had been handed to him. He was pleading."
"He talked of the 'pivotal moment' for our nation's economy, the 'urgency' needed in getting legislation passed. In the previous few months, the lame-duck president had worked far from the spotlight, but that morning the world was once again watching. With a gaze that did not wander and a deep chill in his voice, Bush tried to make them listen," Raddatz said.
If they listened, they shrugged. Republicans in the House overwhelmingly rejected his bailout plan. It would be nearly another week and $100 billion more in "sweeteners" before Congress approved his legislative rescue package.
White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto defended Bush's role in the economic crisis and the passage of the bailout package.
"It may be the single most important bill on the economy ever passed, and the president's leadership was largely responsible for that," Fratto said.
Bush will also convene the finance ministers of the major industrialized countries known as the G7 for a White House meeting this weekend.
Like many presidents in their last months, Bush has visibly aged and has a thinner schedule than his first seven years in office. He hasn't held a news conference since July 15 and his spokeswoman says it's partly because he doesn't want to get entangled in the presidential race.
He is no longer the undisputed leader of the GOP. Administration officials check in with John McCain's campaign nearly every morning to walk through schedules and talking points to ensure the party message matches.
Bush was conspicuously absent as the dominoes in the credit crisis started to tumble with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac takeover Sept. 7. Then Merrill Lynch was sold off Sept. 14. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt Sept. 15, and the federal government came up with a $85 billion rescue of American International Group Sept. 16. Markets became skittish, the ripples were growing ominously large and radiating around the globe.
But it wasn't until Sept. 18 and Sept. 19, that Bush addressed the growing crisis with brief statements at the White House before turning on his heels and departing without taking any questions.
"As the financial crisis was unfolding, he seemed really irrelevant," analyst Rothenberg said. "He was invisible, a force not to be reckoned with.
"You could almost say that the financial crisis was the economic version of 9/11," Rothenberg said. "When you think about 9/11 with George Bush, he was leading the country, he was rallying the country. With the economic crisis, it was [Treasury Secretary] Hank Paulson who was leading the charge, and that was odd. Usually the president is out there to engage the public."
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, called Bush "the lamest of lame ducks."
But he gave Bush some credit for eventually winning passage of the $700 billion rescue plan.
"Even for a popular president, it would be tough to move Congress on such a big-ticket item," he said.
Sabato said he would give Bush a grade of D "for letting this [problem] accumulate and explode, and a B for getting something done, along with others, when the need was obvious."
Clarke said she and others were also struck by the downbeat tone of Bush's comments in Virginia Tuesday, but credited them as a "pretty honest, straightforward answer by the president."
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