Bush's 'Secret'

"We know that Iraq didn't create terrorism (although it has created a lot of new terrorists), just as we know that terrorists are evil men who want to do us harm. But we also know that George Bush doesn't have a clue about how to deal either with Iraq or the war on terror.

"So he's going to keep trying to frighten us, and convince us that staying the course -- and crossing our fingers -- will allow us to 'win the war on terror.'

"Sadly, as ludicrous as the president's 'newsflash: terrorists want to kill us' speech was, if the Democrats don't step up and vociferously and consistently counter it with a compelling 'we will keep you safer' argument, the Bush scare strategy will once again prove effective."

A CNN poll: "Fifty-five percent of 1,004 Americans said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who has supported Bush administration policies, according to the poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of CNN. Forty percent said they would be more likely."

And get a load of this: "Asked whether former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 52 percent said he was not, but 43 percent said they believe he was."

Forty-three percent? Even the president says Saddam had "nothing" to do with 9/11.

Dick Polman examines the Dem strategy in his Philly Inquirer blog:

"Democrats are now signaling, however, that they will borrow a fabled Rove tactic: targeting the opposition's strength and trying to convert it into a weakness. In this case, it means trying to persuade voters that the GOP, traditionally seen as the strong security party, has actually been weakening America in the war on terrorism. (The Democrats might actually have the wind at their back this time. The Bush White House probably won't be pleased by this new finding, in a Fox News poll released today: When people were asked whether America would have been better or worse off if Al Gore had been president on 9/11, 34 percent said better and 33 percent said worse; among swing-voting independents, 37 percent said better and 27 percent said worse.)

"One key facet of the Democratic plan is to target Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose failures of execution in Iraq have been copiously documented in two widely respected books -- Fiasco and Cobra II -- and who has famously brushed off criticisms by saying things like 'stuff happens.' . . . Rumsfeld is potentially a good 'wedge' issue during this congressional campaign season; in other words, condemning him is a tactic that unites the Democrats and divides the Republicans."

By the way, I picked up a blog item yesterday about Dan Rather's longtime producer that, it turns out, she is flatly denying, as the New York Observer reports:

"On Sept. 5, Radar Online reported that among his new hires was Mary Mapes, the CBS producer who prepared the report about President Bush's National Guard service that doomed Mr. Rather's CBS career. Reached at her home in Dallas, Ms. Mapes said she had not been approached to join HDNet and that the whole story, including several quotes attributed to her, was 'made up.' (Radar editor Maer Roshan stood by the story.)"

The other big uproar around town concerns a major network movie, conveniently timed for 9/10 and 9/11. I spent the day digging into it, and here's my report: