The Week

Bad news from Spain. John Kerry’s constituency of foreign leaders is up by one.

2004 has been a hard-hitting campaign so far, and rightly so. “I don’t fault George Bush for doing too much in the War on Terror, as some do,” John Kerry has said. “I believe that he’s done too little…. He hasn’t pursued a strategy to win the hearts and minds of people around the world, and win the war of ideas against the radical ideology of Osama bin Laden.” That is a view on a most important question, and George W. Bush should take it on. But watch: Whenever Bush does so, he will be accused of being harsh. Harsh in the argot of journalists, citizens’ watchdog groups, and other liberals means Republicans are fighting back. Besides being ludicrously biased, the tut-tutting over harshness infantilizes the electorate. We’re big boys and girls; we can separate the wheat from the chaff. If not, let’s send our apologies, and our submission, to Queen Elizabeth.

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Bad news from Spain. John Kerry’s constituency of foreign leaders is up by one.

2004 has been a hard-hitting campaign so far, and rightly so. “I don’t fault George Bush for doing too much in the War on Terror, as some do,” John Kerry has said. “I believe that he’s done too little…. He hasn’t pursued a strategy to win the hearts and minds of people around the world, and win the war of ideas against the radical ideology of Osama bin Laden.” That is a view on a most important question, and George W. Bush should take it on. But watch: Whenever Bush does so, he will be accused of being harsh. Harsh in the argot of journalists, citizens’ watchdog groups, and other liberals means Republicans are fighting back. Besides being ludicrously biased, the tut-tutting over harshness infantilizes the electorate. We’re big boys and girls; we can separate the wheat from the chaff. If not, let’s send our apologies, and our submission, to Queen Elizabeth.