Help me out with something, people.

Conventional wisdom says that one of the reasons Obama is doing so well now is that the economy is in the tank, and Democrats are generally thought of as doing better on economic issues (remember the Clinton years? wasn’t that great? ahhhhh…). So naturally the topic floating to the top of the punditocracy now is what could possibly happen to topple Obama in the two weeks we have left. They need something to fill up the 24-hour news cycle now that any talk of a “horse race” causes spontaneous spit takes. So people are talking about an October surprise, a foreign policy issue that could tilt things back to McCain. And the number one item on everyone’s list is another terrorist attack.

So here’s my question. In a country where we were attacked on 9/11 under a Republican administration, by the very guy the previous Democratic administration kept warning them about, and we turned around and made the attacker stronger by providing millions more recruits to his cause, why would a second attack make us vote for another Republican?

Sorry, but this just doesn’t make any sense to me. I know McCain’s supposed to be tough on foreign policy, but it’s “tough” Republican foreign policy, Bush’s “my way or the highway” attitude that blinded him to Bin Laden while Bush was focused on missile defense (al Qaida, at last count, had zero ICBMs, btw), that got us into this mess in the first place. Obama’s measured, balanced and yes, nuanced approach to foreign policy, being willing to talk to our enemies and then bombing them if they don’t get with the program, seems like a much better way to respond to another terrorist attack than just having McCain blithley reaching for the nuclear launch button while humming Beach Boys tunes.