In 2008, we came together to reclaim the basic bargain that built this country -- the basic ideal of this country, the thing that created the largest middle class, the most prosperous nation in the history of the world.
Having said that, it is worth also saying that Mr Sharif is an implausible upholder of the democratic ideal, that thecountry now needs an impartial judiciary more than ever before, and that this episode is not the end of the story: although, at 50, Pakistan might be considered ripe for a crisis of the mid-life variety, this one had more to do with growing up than growing old.
And I think, unfortunately, Katrina revealed that there's a gap between theideal we have as a country and the reality that people are living every day in places like the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.