NatGertler
06-07-2007, 07:49 AM
When Milligan says "I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [9/11], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country (http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/191942),” he's not only performing the ugly effort of saying hey, a new attack would be good for us (us being the GOP), but he's getting it wrong.
The one thing that Bush supporters have been able to point to in terms of the efficacy of his strategy is that, hey, there hasn't been a successful terror attack from outside on American soil since 9/11. (Let's ignore the strong lack of such attacks before 9/11, and skip noting that the 9/11 attacks fell on Bush's watch, of course.) A new such attack would simply go to show that, despite giving Bush most of the powers that he wanted and the wars that he wanted, he wasn't able to protect America. You don't trump the party that has no answers by being the party that has answers which don't work. Oh, there would be some folks who would say that just means we need more commitment to the harshest and nastiest side of the GOP -- but those would come from people who are already ensconced on the harshest and nastiest side of the GOP.
In the end, results matter.
The one thing that Bush supporters have been able to point to in terms of the efficacy of his strategy is that, hey, there hasn't been a successful terror attack from outside on American soil since 9/11. (Let's ignore the strong lack of such attacks before 9/11, and skip noting that the 9/11 attacks fell on Bush's watch, of course.) A new such attack would simply go to show that, despite giving Bush most of the powers that he wanted and the wars that he wanted, he wasn't able to protect America. You don't trump the party that has no answers by being the party that has answers which don't work. Oh, there would be some folks who would say that just means we need more commitment to the harshest and nastiest side of the GOP -- but those would come from people who are already ensconced on the harshest and nastiest side of the GOP.
In the end, results matter.