The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 14)

br> -- Mimi Evans Winship /p> p> STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE br> Re: Mark Goldblatt's Democratic Sanity Check : /p>

It's not that Hillary's "rivals" for the Leftist nod are upset about a "suggestion that another major terrorist strike against the United States would help the Republican Party": they are discomfited by her acknowledgement that Americans instinctively distrust Democrats on issues of national security. Of course they're going to deny that.

All sorts of pundits and spokesmen could have repeated this on television and in print, and it would have fallen on deaf ears in the terrorist lairs. But when the Democrat nominee-presumptive gets up and says it, it's a clear signal to our enemies that if they lay low for long enough, they get to win.

On the other hand, should the terrorists decline to follow Hillary's advice and manage to execute another 9/11, the howls on the Left for Bush's head will only intensify: all his efforts to bolster American security would be seen to have failed, and he and his party would be to blame. In this scenario, to discredit the president, the Mohammedan terrorists, recalling the Provos' failed attempt on Margaret Thatcher's life in 1984, "only have to be lucky once." Nonetheless, as I repeated throughout 2004, and as I'll predict again now, there will be no major attack on U.S. territory during this election cycle. It would not serve the terrorists to remind us that we are at war; better for them that we forget.

Still, I had to laugh at the Breck Girl's sticking to that "Two Americas" script. It's not about security (should an ambulance chaser achieve the Oval Office, how could it be?); rather, it's about the illusion of security. Only if we "unite" will we be safe. (Like Londoners huddled together in the Underground during the Blitz?) Allow me to suggest that President Bush has demonstrated otherwise.

p>I have frequently asserted to the consternation of my Leftist acquaintances that President Bush has indeed been the "uniter" that he claimed to be at the outset of his term. When the Mohammedans struck, everyone who wanted to unite did; everyone who didn't chose not to. There's not much you can do about that in a free country. It is critical, though, that the dividers not be rewarded with the presidency. Let's unite around that. br> --

topics:
Trade, John McCain, Television, Economics, Business, Religion, Islam, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, Russia, NATO, Immigration, Oil