Let's inventory just how America is doing on national security after nearly six years of the Republican administration and Republican Congress.
Have the Republicans captured Bin Laden? No.
Have they captured Mullah Omar of the Taliban? No.
Have the captured the anthrax terrorist? No.
Do they even know who the anthrax terrorist was? No.
Have they stopped the North Korean nuclear program? No.
Have they stopped the North Korean missle program? No.
Have they stopped the Iranian nuclear program? No.
Have they stopped the Iranian missle program? No.
Have they successfully weakened Hezbollah? No.
Have they successfully weakened Hamas? No.
As Katrina showed, can they evacuate a city when they had advance notice of a disaster? Definitely not.
Can they resupply a city after a disaster, when they had advance notice? No.
Can they secure a city after a disaster? No.
Can they rebuild a city after a disaster? No.
Could they do any better if the city was harmed by a terrorist attack? No.
Is the Department of Homeland Security effective or well-managed? No.
Do they give out national security grants based on objective threat assessments and needs analyses? No.
Has the reorganization of the intelligence community made our intelligence better, or less politicized? No.
Have they been able to rebuild anything at the World Trade Center? No.
Can police and fire departments communicate with each other during an emergency? Nope.
Have they secured our borders? No.
Can they track entrants to the country with temporary visas? No.
According to GAO, are we any better today at detecting guns and knives in airport security checks than we were before 9/11? Not one bit.
Have they secured our ports? No.
Have they secured chemical plants? No.
Have they secured key train lines and bridges? No.
Have they secured key pipelines? No.
Have we reduced our dependence on foreign oil? Of course not.
Is Iraq safe and secure? That would be a No.
Is Afghanistan safe and secure? No.
Is Israel safe and secure? No.
Are we killing or capturing insurgents in Iraq faster than new ones sign up (Rumsfeld's definition of winning)? No.
How about in Afghanistan? No.
Are we more popular than we used to be in moderate Islamic countries like Turkey? No.
Do we have broad popular support in allies like Italy and Spain? No.
Can we convince world powers with veto power at the UN like China and Russia to support our diplomatic initiatives? No.
Are we developing new technologies like stem cells or alternative energy that will provide the economic strength to fund national security in the future? No.
Is the US military at full readiness? No.
Are our reserves available for emergencies? No, they're totally over-stretched.
In short, the Republican administration's unique blend of incompetence, ideology, and corruption have made us substantially less safe and secure today than we were before 9/11.
The national security issue doesn't help the Republicans. National security is a Democratic issue.