By Patrick J. Buchanan – October 16, 2001

Nov. 13 was a good day for America and a great day for George W. Bush. Kabul fell, the Taliban were suddenly on the run, and the president’s men and U.S. armed forces seemed to have engineered a brilliant victory without the loss of a single American in combat.

A surge of national confidence sent the Dow soaring, and the NASDAQ rose 3 percent. Bush’s next poll should find him near the 90 percent approvalrating in which his father basked after Desert Storm.