The Washington Times reports that a new poll shows terrorism is the single most important issue to American voters, and that is why Bush is going after Kerry's intelligence voting record. The Dreyfuss Report says:

A new Gallup poll reports that Americans rank terrorism as the most critical threat to the United States. Ninety-two percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Democrats said terrorism was the No. 1 danger facing America. The Washington Times quotes a Republican strategist (unnamed) saying that Bush will "make the case that Kerry is not the right man to lead the war on terror." And, in the same piece, Will Marshall, the DLC's thinktank man, says it will be the "dominant issue in the presidential campaign."

Thus, Bush's wild-swinging attack on Kerry for having had the temerity to suggest (a decade ago!) that the bloated U.S. intelligence budget might need some trimming. (Since then, instead, the budget for U.S. intelligence has skyrocketed, up 50 percent—a wasteful increase that Kerry now says he supported.) I repeat, again: the Democrats need to come up with a way of hitting Bush on terrorism, and not by demanding a bigger war on terrorism—which is what Hillary and Joe Lieberman want. Instead, they need to quietly educate Americans about how to put terrorism in perspective. Compared to the threats that can really hurt us—say, car crashes, tobacco, environmental pollution, AIDS—terrorism isn't that big a deal. Sure, it's scary, and sure, we need to pursue Al Qaeda and its allies. But a $500 billion Pentagon budget? A huge Department of Homeland Security? Patriot Act II?