Leadership, at last.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Speaking in the sodden city of New Orleans Thursday night, George W. Bush delivered what the country needs from its president in the wake of a national calamity: calm reassurance, a concrete plan and an optimistic vision. This was among the better speeches of Bush's presidency; its chief deficiency is that he didn't deliver it a week or 10 days earlier.

As was the case in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the music was more important than the words. Ever since Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, the storm's victims and a stunned nation needed to hear that their president understood the enormity of the disaster and was prepared to marshal federal resources for an effective response. The Bush administration had not succeeded in creating confidence on either account. The president made a start Tuesday, when he uncharacteristically acknowledged failures and accepted responsibility for them. Bush made further progress two days later in New Orleans.

The president laid out in broad terms a plan for completing the work of recovery and relief, and beginning the enormous task of reconstruction. How this work is accomplished, and how it is to be paid for, are important and unsettled questions, but Bush was able to provide an overview of progress to date and set several important benchmarks for the future. He said, for instance, that the government's goal is to get evacuees out of shelters and into more permanent housing by mid-October.

Equally important, Bush set a high standard for reconstruction. When New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities are reborn, they must be better than they were before, and must not replicate the poverty and segregation that were so shamefully on display after Katrina hit. Such a vision will be hard to realize, but all rebuilding projects should be judged by the degree to which they honor and advance it.

In pledging his support for a massive reconstruction effort, Bush is embracing a role that is inconsistent with his small-government ideology - just as in Iraq he embraced the task of nation-building he had rejected earlier. Such a course change will require that the president and Congress review their political agendas to prevent the costs of federal aid to the Gulf Coast from creating unsustainable levels of public debt.

For now it's heartening to have evidence that the president comprehends the scale of the task ahead, and acknowledges the inadequacy of the response to date. In a time of crisis the country can't afford its leaders to seem feckless or out of touch, and it's good to see Bush regain his footing.