Scary column from Charles Krauthammer predicting that presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry could win on the war issue. “Sept. 11 changed the rules of presidential electoral politics,” writes Krauthammer. “Or, more accurately, it returned us to an earlier set of rules that prevailed in Cold War days. Every single president elected during the Cold War had served in some capacity in the military.”
If Kerry were to win, however, the war on terror would return to the policies that existed before Sept. 11. Kerry has said that this war is “primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation.” As Krauthammer points out, this is a “hopelessly retrograde” policy that did not work before, most notably in our response to the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
While noting that Lincoln, who served only a few months in the Illinois militia, and FDR, who never served in the military, were our great war presidents, he thinks that this time Kerry has the trump card. More optimistic friends think that Kerry?s postwar activity and snootiness may torpedo him.