Terrorists’ Candidates? (washingtonpost.com)

(from above site)
Terrorists’ Candidates?

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, October 8, 2004; Page A35

Do the bad guys — the terrorists in their Afghan caves and Iraqi redoubts — want George Bush defeated in this election? Bush critics, among them the editors of the New York Times, have worked themselves into a lather over the mere suggestion that this might be so. A front-page “analysis” in The Post quoted several Republican variations of this theme — such as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage saying that the terrorists in Iraq “are trying to influence the election against President Bush” — then noted that “[s]uch accusations . . . surfaced in the modern era during the McCarthy communist hunt.”

Intimations of McCarthyism constitute a serious charge. But the charge is not remotely serious. Of course the terrorists want Bush defeated. How can anyone pretend otherwise?

Why are we collectively nervous about terrorism as the election approaches? Because, as everyone knows, there are terrorists out there who would dearly love to hit us before the election. Why? To affect it. What does that mean? Do they want to affect it randomly?

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