I'm talking pure politics here--not because our only, or first, response should be political, of course...but there will still be huge stakes in the election, we all know that.
It troubles me that pundits tend to believe that if there is no strike, Bush can claim he has protected the country; while if there is a strike, Americans will rally around him. This bugs the hell out of me--it logically makes no sense since it means there is no way Bush can fail as "terrorism fighter in chief" regardless of what he does. But it has the ring of truth, nonetheless.
So if this ends up happening, Democrats need to have some kind of gameplan, beyond being resigned to defeat. What can we do? What would be the perfect response that would walk the tightrope between being too combative and conceding everything to the opposition? I really don't know, but I do know we need to think about it.