Bush Emerges After Days of Financial Crisis WASHINGTON - On Thursday, the president spoke. It was brief, two minutes. His brow was furrowed, and his words were careful: "The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence." Then, having imparted no specifics, he once again slipped out of sight. In the increasingly surreal world of the White House, the appearance was a sign that all pretense of normalcy is gone. All week long, with Wall Street engulfed by what analysts are calling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, President Bush had mostly stayed out of sight, except when trying to maintain the façade of business as usual. To be sure, other presidents, most recently Mr. Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, have been careful about what they say in public when Wall Street is in turmoil. But by all outward appearances, Mr. Bush has been reduced this week to almost a bit player in his own government, as Washington has reoriented itself away from the White House and toward Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke. On Monday, as Americans absorbed the news that the venerable investment bank Lehman Brothers had been forced into bankruptcy, Mr. Bush received John Kufuor, the president of Ghana, at the White House. The sun-dappled South Lawn was awash in color that morning, as a full military honor guard and a fife and drum band marched across the grass, entertaining the leaders before they exchanged the customary pleasantries. "Your tenure has been full of events and challenges, some very mind-boggling and hair-raising," Mr. Kufuor told Mr. Bush, raising more than a few eyebrows. "You are a survivor," the Ghanaian leader told the American president. And my hope is that history would prove kinder to you. That evening, after the stock market had nose-dived, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling more than 500 points, Mr. Bush, his wife Laura and more than 100 of their guests dined on Maine lobster and ginger-scented lamb during a state dinner in the African leader's honor. Then, in their tuxedoes and ball gowns they repaired to the Rose Garden to watch actors from Disney's musical "The Lion King" perform a medley of songs under the cool, dark Washington sky. On Tuesday, when the insurance giant American International Group appeared headed toward bankruptcy, Mr. Bush flew to Texas to inspect hurricane damage. As he flew over the devastation in his helicopter, Marine One, a press helicopter following him adjusted its flight path allow photographers on board to capture the image of Mr. Bush's chopper in perfect alignment with the wreckage below. On the ground in the Gulf Coast island of Galveston, Tex., Mr. Bush met behind closed doors with state and local leaders and emerged surrounded by a crowd of them, holding the hand of Galveston's mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas, as he walked past television cameras that his aides kept a safe distance away. "Mr. President!" a reporter shouted. What are you going to do about A.I.G.? Mr. Bush looked straight at the cameras and kept walking as he shouted back. "We're here talking about the people of Galveston, Texas," he said. They've got a great mayor, and they're working hard. And so it went, until Thursday, when it became clear that Mr. Bush would have to show himself to the public, after the White House press corps had begun agitating to know just what, precisely, the president was doing. The day earlier, Mr. Bush had kept up another seemingly ordinary schedule: separate meetings with Gen. David Petraeus and the president of Panama, hosting the annual White House Iftaar dinner, in honor of American Muslims. "There are times, believe it or not, when policy makers actually need to, like, work on making policy," his press secretary, Dana Perino, explained. But by Thursday, the White House put out the news that Mr. Bush would no longer spend the day traveling to Alabama and Florida, where he had planned to attend two Republican fund-raisers and, in Alabama, to tour a facility that converts sewage and other waste to energy. Instead, he huddled inside the White House and emerged just after 10 a.m. to explain himself: I've canceled my travel today to stay in Washington, where I will continue to closely monitor the situation in our financial markets and consult with my economic advisers.