Morris on Election Strategy

Morris on Election Strategy

DUBYA'S DILEMMA

So the key is for Bush to heighten the saliency of terrorism as an issue.

After all, Americans are wrong to see terrorism as a fourth-place issue. Education or the economy or health care won't knock down buildings and kill 3,000 people. Terrorism will. It is the result of Bush's vigilance that we are all fat and happy enough to see optional issues as more important than the national preservation that terrorism places at risk. . . .

The more Americans think he has succeeded in mitigating the terrorist threat, the more they vote for Kerry. The more they feel that terrorism is still at our doorstep - as it is - the more they back Bush as the better wartime leader.

The traditional incumbent recipe of claiming success backfires here. Bush must make clear to us all the threats that remain, not try to take credit for the end of the terror danger. He must make the most of what he has yet to achieve, rather than try to sell his successes.

Success extinguishes his mandate. Tasks that remain before us rekindle it.