Peggy Noonan’s Wall structure Street Journal column continues to be must reading for thoughtful liberals and conservatives as well. Now she problems an urgent, heartfelt call for all Americans to support the next Leader. Because it isn’t the risks and issues we face, but how we face them that defines us as a nation.

The terrible events of 9/11 brought us together in a way not seen since World War II. But the stresses and divisions of the Bush years have driven us aside to a point that is harmful and dangerous. Today, Noonan argues, the national mood has swung the various other way and it is well overdue for politicians to capture up. We long for leaders who are able to summon us to greatness and sacrifice, as they did in the long struggles against fascism and communism.

In this timely essay, written in the pamphleteering tradition of Tom Paine’s Common Sense, Noonan reminds us that people must face our common challenges together-not by rising above partisanship, but by reaffirming what it means to be American.