Any day now, the United States will have its first real missile-defense system. (Or at least the first one since the 1970s, if you insist on counting the brief Vanguard deployment as “a real missile-defense system.”) Sometime between now and the end of this month, operators at Alaska’s Ft. Greely will flick a switch and turn the system on. When it happens, we’ll all be a bit safer in the event of a rogue strike from North Korea. Moreover, President Bush will have a good news day — sort of. The media will want to debate the system’s effectiveness, and item no. 1 on their list of talking points will be this decision to delay an intercept test until after the election.