The ability to reassure an anxious nation depends on precise word choice. Last night, while giving his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama missed the mark.

“When we learn that a major bank has serious problems,” the president said, “we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy.”

The use of the word assure, rather than the proper verb, ensure, makes this presidential pledge considerably less comforting. To assure is to make promises to or to convince, while ensure is to make certain that something will happen. Assure takes a personal object — residents, guests, tourists, consumers — the people to whom the promise is made. The president assures Americans that we will recover from this economic recession; he ensures that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is implemented with alacrity and oversight.

(While we’re on the subject, insure should be restricted to financial contexts, to describe what insurance companies do.)

In such a precarious financial setting, making certain something comes to be is much more comforting than making a promise it will.

I’d be happy to receive a few (thousand) dollars to stimulate the president’s command of English. Maybe then, with his verbs in control, he wouldn’t have to look so misty eyed.