Spain Talking Points Needed

A Socialist victory or even a divided government is a major blow to the Bush administration.

It's crucial that we watch exactly how the administration responds to this -- a repudiation of one of his key European allies in the wake of a brutal follow-up to 9/11.

If Bush has any integrity whatsoever he will have to supportively engage whoever emerges as the victor in Spain. And if it is the Socialists who are charged by the greiving citizens of Spain to steward them through this horrific attack, Bush will have to deal with the Socialists -- and it WON'T be all on his terms (as it has been with the obsequious Aznar).

But, as ct5voter has commented in another thread, "Don't expect this complexity to get much play in the American media. JK can try to point this out, but I don't hold out much hope."

What should Kerry say in the wake of these election results? How can he best respond to this?

And how can the progressive media in the U.S. frame this to get across both the complexity and the significance of these elections? How can we most powerfully make the case that Madrid might be the beginning of the end of Bush's failed war against Al Qaeda (a failure marked above all, of course, by the grossly irresponsible diversion of this war into Iraq).