This week strikes me as easily the most important week for the Kerry candidacy. The voters who will decide this election have already, I think, made up their minds that they could live without a second Bush term. This is not because they necessarily hate Bush (many don’t, including me); nor because they believe that his war and economic policies have been failures (again, I think the record is mixed); but because his conduct of the war in the last year has been wracked with error and hubris, and his economic policy relies upon tax cuts that we simply cannot afford with the kind of spending levels Bush has also enacted. I think it’s also clear that, in so far as some swing voters are libertarian in outlook, Bush has shown his authoritarian, anti-federalist colors. This administration is uninterested in restraining government power, in balancing the budget, in winning over opponents (as opposed to sliming them), and in allowing people to live their own lives free from government moralism. There is not even a sliver of daylight between the White House and the religious right in social policy. This isn’t what we were told before the last election; and it isn’t what many of us hoped for. But it remains the case that Bush’s determination to defeat Jihadist terror is beyond much doubt, even if his methods seem often strained by incompetence, recklessness and arrogance. So Kerry has a great opportunity to win over the undecideds over this week, and if he cannot take advantage of it, he will reveal himself unworthy of the office he seeks.
WHAT KERRY MUST SAY: The most important task of this convention is to persuade Americans that a future Democratic administration will fight this country’s enemies with a passion and energy and consistency at least comparable to Bush’s. If Kerry doesn’t make this a centerpiece of his speech, he deserves to lose. He needs a passage that goes something like this:
Let me now address those in the world who believe that the United States, under a Democratic president, will cower before terror or respond to any future attacks with passivity and weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. As president, I will pursue this country’s real enemies every day I am in the Oval Office; I will seek them out and bring them to justice; I will ensure that our historic duty to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq is met in full, however long it takes, however hard the task. To the murderers of al Qaeda, let me say this. Do not even begin to interpret a Democratic victory as some sign that we will acquiesce to your murderous intent and nihilist politics. In the war against Jihadism, there is no Democrat or Republican. There is simply American. We will unite to defeat you and to secure our country.
Am I dreaming? I don’t know. If Kerry bores on about healthcare or taxes without focusing on terror, then he will richly deserve to lose. Unlike some, I’m open to persuasion. This war is far too important to be left to one party. The 9/11 Commission was an important reminder that we can indeed work together to find a way forward against the dire threat we still face. And it is indeed a failure that this president, far from uniting the country behind this war, has served to divide it more deeply. He may, however, be the best we have on offer. This week will go a long way toward resolving that question.
The Dish 