On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in the sky as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere over east Texas. Needless to say, there were no survivors.

Like Reagan before him, President George W. Bush appeared on television just a few hours after the disaster to address a nation in distress. Unlike Reagan before him, his remarks didn't exactly hit a homerun.

Let's face it: not all presidential speeches are created equal, no matter how important or significant the event. George W. Bush's address of the nation on the space shuttle Columbia tragedy happens to be one of those speeches.

To be fair, it did have a lot to live up to given the legendary status of Reagan's "Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address." The text also owes a lot to it predecessor. Its structure follows the same basic sequence of topics, from addressing the nation to acknowledging the families of the deceased astronauts to invoking images of celestial wonder.

But it's kind of dull…like an off-brand version of Reagan's original.

Rhetorical success and impact aside, though, Bush's address is a good example of the long-lasting influence Reagan's speech had on presidential rhetoric in the event of national tragedy. Even if it is sometimes cosmically lackluster.