John Podhoretz mentions my criticism of the

president on MTP in his column today (“Rod Dreher, formerly of this paper

and now of the Dallas Morning News, said Bush made him wince: ‘He looked

nervous, defensive and intellectually insecure.’”). I made my remarks not

because I’m steamed at Bush over some other issue — true, I’m concerned

about spending, but my conservatism is primarily social, not fiscal; and

despite the failings I see in Bush’s social policies, he’s light years

better than anybody else I can think of — but because I think it’s

desperately important that he win re-election. There is only one

issue here: the war on terror, and I firmly believe the future of

civilization is at stake. If you don’t, imagine how everything would

change if, one hour from now, Islamic terrorists detonated suitcase nukes

simultaneously in New York and Washington. In an era when WMDs are

proliferating into the hands of terrorist networks, we can take nothing for

granted. That’s why seeing Bush on TV yesterday scared me. I thought: We could lose this thing. There is more at stake in this election than in

any I can think of in my lifetime, even the 1980 election that brought

Reagan to power. Bush simply has to get his act together, and he’s

much better served by hearing honest commentary to that effect from his

friends.