In the course of defending Dick Cheney’s assault on the Obama administration, Bill Kristol has this to say:
But of course an intelligent and knowledgeable advocate–even if he’s personally not so popular–can do a lot to get an issue front and center. And the debate of that issue can do political damage to the existing administration and its congressional allies.
The real question any Republican strategist should ask himself is this: What will Republican chances be in 2012 if voters don’t remember the Bush administration–however problematic in other areas–as successful in defending the country after 9/11? To give this issue away would be to accept a post-Herbert-Hoover-like-fate for today’s GOP. No-one would mistake Kristol for a softie, but even by his standards there’s something brutal about this analysis. For one thing, the salience of this advice, to say nothing of its half-life, might depend upon there being another terrorist attack on US soil during Obama’s term in office.
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