A reader notes in this morning’s New York Times:

“Barack Obama won the election because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens.”
–New York Times, The Next President
It’s good to start the morning off with a laugh. This has nothing to do with why he won this election, but it will be the reason he loses the next one.

I’d just change “will” to “may.”

And no matter what else one thinks of President George W. Bush, we are left with the striking fact that there has been no terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001, a scenario that seemed impossible to believe in those first terrifying days after the attack. The commander-in-chief does not deserve the sole credit for that, but he deserves his share; the post-9/11 policies he helped enact have prevented the nightmare scenarios.

It’s interesting that the Times believes we have been unprotected in recent years. A citizen’s 401(k) can eventually return to its former value. A life, once lost, cannot be replaced.