9/11 On The Left, The Center-Right, And In The MSM

Hugh Hewitt:

The Boston Globe has a story this morning with an astonishing, indeed disgusting, headline: "Giuliani watchers wonder if he will overplay 9/11 card."

9/11 is, of course, not a "card" at all, but a devastating attack on the country that despite its horrible toll could have been even worse --far, far worse if the terrorists had been better skilled in their selection of targets and luckier in their logistics that morning. The Boston Globe's headline perfectly conveys the left's understanding of 9/11 --a political event that it fears works for the Republicans and especially Giuliani. The center-right understands 9/11 as the defining moment of our era, and Giuliani's response to it a model of leadership in the still extraordinarily dangerous times in which we live.

The Globe's headline should evoke condemnation of the paper's relentless agenda-journalism which now extends to the characterization of a national emergency as a part of a poker game. We'll see.
[...]
In the GOP, 9/11 isn't a prop or a card, but the plumb line which must first be judged right before any other position is taken into account. Rudy's lead in the national polls is because almost all GOP voters know he understands 9/11's significance. Mitt Romney is ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire polls because voters there understand that he too understands 9/11 and that in addition to that crucial starting point, he is also to the right of Giuliani on other key issues. Romney is hoping that success in the early contests will communicate this message to the large primary states. Rudy is banking on his deserved national reputation as surviving the early losses or split decisions.

But Giuliani and Romney --and Thompson as well (McCain too, though it hardly matters)-- will eventually face a Democratic nominee who doesn't believe that 9/11 signifies what the center-right believes that it does, a nominee who, with the Globe, thinks the GOP nominee will shamelessly exploit the attack on America rather than sincerely order his priorities because of 9/11 and the world it unveiled and govern accordingly. And on that crucial difference the election of 2008 will almost certainly turn.