By SANDRA SOBIERAJ
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - In time of turmoil, President Bush has gathered a confidence and command unseen in his first eight months.

The man once stumped by the names of foreign leaders has, as president, huddled with 19 presidents, chancellors, prime ministers and emirs to plot an international response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

For the crisis-stunned president who, in the early hours of that dark Tuesday, struggled to label the perpetrators (he called them "folks"), "evildoers" now rolls off the tongue with a hiss. His order to see Osama bin Laden captured "dead or alive" could have come off too cowboy but sounded all commander-in-chief.

"The worse things are, the better he is," said Mark McKinnon, a media adviser and friend to Bush.

"Those of us who have worked with him and seen him in private have always thought that it might be in a crisis that people were able to see the full measure of the man."

The last month has been full of firsts for the country.

The first mass murder by foreign terrorists on American soil. The first time a vice president is forced into hiding by security threats. The first time NATO radar planes have been called on to patrol U.S. skies.

And, on Thursday, the first prime-time formal news conference of the George W. Bush presidency.

Until now, it was a venue that Bush had explicitly rejected. Aides had said he was more comfortable taking reporters' questions informally, in the press briefing room or during brief photo opportunities with other heads of state.

Even critics acknowledged he was ready.

"He seems much more self-confident today than he was even three weeks ago," said Joe Lockhart, former press secretary to President Clinton.

In the aftermath of attacks on New York and Washington, Bush's job approval rating soared above 90 percent and, no matter how pollsters phrase the question about Bush's handling of the crisis, nine in 10 Americans say they heartily approve.

Lockhart credited Bush with deftly juggling his high-stakes roles: military commander, cheerleader for struggling U.S. businesses, soother of unabating American fears. "Every day he's been able to speak to those issues directly."

On Thursday, the bar for offering comfort was pushed even higher.

Bush faced live TV cameras on the heels of a chilling FBI warning of additional terrorist attacks inside the United States or abroad in the next several days.

McKinnon, well aware of Bush's resistance to the formal news conference, said it was the best venue left to Bush for reassuring a scared country. By fielding reporters' questions in an unedited, unfiltered session broadcast live nationwide, "it's almost like taking Americans' questions by proxy," McKinnon said.

Bush spent about two hours preparing for the news conference, during sessions in the residence and Oval Office on Thursday.

Asked whether Bush relished the prospect of his first prime-time tangle with the press, press secretary Ari Fleischer replied, "Relish?"

It has been 6 1/2 years since the East Room _ and the nation _ saw such a forum. That was President Clinton on April 18, 1995, talking about welfare reform and the Republican Congress.

The following morning, the Oklahoma City bombing awoke Americans to the horror of terrorism.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Sandra Sobieraj has covered Presidents Clinton and Bush for The Associated Press.