Oftentimes it's the little unguarded moments that reveal a man. With Lincoln, it may have been when he had his stovepipe hat shot from his head as he looked out over a live battlefield.

For the current President Bush, there are several incidents we are aware of that reveal his character. One of our favorites happened last night.

In Chile for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the President was on his way in to a ceremonial dinner. Once he had passed and was posing for photos with his host and their wives, Chilean security at the door agressively blocked Mr. Bush's two Secret Service agents. That turned into a scuffle which eventually found one of the agents in a headlock.

As the confrontation verged on a fistfight, who should appear but the President of the United States. Rather than proceeding into the dining hall and letting his subordinates handle this problem, he had turned back to take care of it personally -- and alone.

Reaching over 2 ranks of Chilean security, he grabbed his head agent and pulled him through their ranks and into the hall. Noticing who was doing the pulling, the security guards finally relented and let the agent through.

Then the President straightened himself up, and went on about his business.

Time and again in the last 4 years -- standing on a firetruck at ground zero, throwing out the first pitch at the 2001 World Series in New York, flying into Baghdad for Thanksgiving last year -- Mr. Bush has demonstrated a refreshing fearlessness that has made him a quasi-folk hero to many.

And that, by the way, more than any other reason, is why we re-elected him this time: for the type of man he is -- paranoid liberal cultists notwithstanding. When the civilized world is under attack by amoral barbarians, you want a President who isn't afraid to dive into a fistfight when he has to, who doesn't leave such things to "the servants," as we suspect many Presidents and President-wannabes would.