Misunderestimating President Bush Again

Don't miss John McIntyre's post at Real Clear Politics "Have The Democrats Walked Into a Trap......Again? "

Here's a teaser:

First, the Democrats still do not grasp that foreign affairs and national security issues are their vulnerabilities, not their strengths. All of the drumbeat about Iraq, spying, and torture that the left thinks is so damaging to the White House are actually positives for the President and Republicans. Apparently, Democrats still have not fully grasped that the public has profound and long-standing concerns about their ability to defend the nation. As long as national security related issues are front page news, the Democrats are operating at a structural political disadvantage. Perhaps the intensity of their left wing base and the overwhelmingly liberal press corps produces a disorientation among Democratic politicians and prevents a more realistic analysis of where the country’s true pulse lies on these issues.

With their publicly defeatist language, John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean reinforce these “soft on security” stereotypes, a weakness that more sober-minded Democrats have been trying to mitigate since the late 60’s and 70’s. Unfortunately, this mentality dominates the Democrats’ political base and more accurately represents where the heart and soul of the modern Democratic party lies than the very tiny sliver of Joe Lieberman Democrats. The Party of FDR, Truman and John Kennedy -- at least on foreign policy -- is clearly no more.

[. . .]

One of the major problems working against Democrats is many on their side appear to be rooting for failure in Iraq and publicly ridicule the idea that we actually might win. When this impression is put in context of the debate over eavesdropping or the Patriot Act, Democrats run the significant risk of being perceived to be more concerned with the enemy’s rights than protecting ordinary Americans. This is a loser for Democrats.

If Democrats want to make this spying “outrage” a page one story they are fools walking right into a trap.

There is much more. Read the whole thing.

Comments

[California Yankee]

Kip, I'm not saying people should be "perfectly okay with this program." What I am saying is that the secret electronic intercepts of communications where there is a reasonable basis to conclude that one party to the communication is a member of al Qaeda, affiliated with al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with al Qaeda, or working in support of al Qaeda, and where one party to the communication is outside the United States, doesn't bother me. At least not when the Attorney General can make a colorable argument that there is legal authorization.

Thanks for the comment it caused me to think about this issue again and post The NSAs Secret Intercepts of Al-Qaeda Communications.

[KipEsquire]

I think McIntyre is dead wrong.

Purple state Americans may not understand all the intricacies of constitutional law, but they understand "you need a warrant."

I do think that the congressional leaders, including Democrats, who were briefed on this program need to be careful to avoid the "hypocrite two-step." But that's not the same as saying that people will be perfectly okay with this program -- they aren't, nor should they be.