Bush acknowledges "anxiety" in nation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged there was "anxiety" and "uncertainty" among Americans about the Iraq war and the nation's economic future, but he strongly denounced the idea that the country should react by retreating from the global stage.

The president echoed a theme he first laid out in his nationally televised State of the Union address Tuesday night by saying there is unease "even though our economy is roaring" and the nation is following what he called a "path to victory" in Iraq.

"In uncertain times," Bush said Wednesday, "it's easy ... for people to lose confidence in the capacity of this country to lead and to shape our future."

For Bush, the speech, delivered to a supportive audience in the auditorium of the Grand Ole Opry, suggested he is facing a new challenge: maintaining his broad optimism, even as he recognizes that increasing numbers of Americans, as measured by public-opinion polls, have deep worries about the progress of the war, the future of the economy and the course on which he is leading the country.

"My worry," Bush said, "is that people see that uncertainty and decide to adopt isolationist policies or protectionist policies."

The trip to Nashville was the first of three days of presidential travel, scheduled to end Friday, when Bush will begin a weekend in Texas.

The tour was taking place amid three events likely to shape his efforts to pull out of what has been the most politically troublesome year of his presidency: the State of the Union address Tuesday, the president's delivery of the 2007 budget to Congress next Monday and, that same day, the scheduled opening of hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee on the National Security Agency's eavesdropping on communications between American citizens and people overseas.

"It's important that he reinforce his agenda and illustrate that he's still in control and setting policy, domestic as well as foreign," said Rick Ahearn, who helped President Reagan communicate his policy goals.

Public opinion surveys demonstrate the mood to which the president referred.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll made public on Tuesday reported that 31 percent of those surveyed said the country was headed in the right direction; 57 percent said it was on the wrong track.

In Nashville, the president sought to reinforce the goals he laid out Tuesday night, renewing his call for the development of alternative energy sources in an effort to reduce what he has called the nation's "addiction" to oil.

Bush said an isolationist outlook "would prevent us from doing our duty around the world to not only make this world a place where terrorists have trouble recruiting, but to live up to that admonition: 'To whom much is given, much is required.' "

Improving conditions around the world through an effective foreign policy, he said, would make life better for Americans.