While expressing sympathy for the dispossessed people of the Louisiana coast, the American president couldn't help signalling his aristocracy, and I can't resist writing it down.

"The coast has been devastated," he said in his folksy-executive voice, his I'm-your-dad-and-it's-gonna-be-alright voice. "But out of this devastation we're going to make it even better than it was. Trent Lott's house was destroyed; it was a beautiful house. But we're going to build it back just the way it was and I look forward to sitting on the porch with him. . . . Now the first step is a 10.5 billion dollar appropriation, but that's just the beginning. . . ."