On National Security, Americans Prefer Obama To Bush

Last week, Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol's group Keep America Safe released a desperate ad questioning the loyalty and patriotism of officials in the Obama administration's Department of Justice for once representing suspected terrorists.  Luckily, a hoard of fair-minded Republicans scolded the group for the "unjust" and "destructive" charges made in the ad.

While the ad has been successfully refuted, it is just the most recent attempt by the right to reclaim what they view as their territory: national security. For decades, Republicans have controlled the national security debate.  Not because they've been successful, but because they have been aggressive and appeared "pro-America" to voters with a limited knowledge of intricate foreign policy and defense issues.

Yet after decades of dominating the national security debate, a new Democracy Corps poll shows that Republicans' advantage may be slipping away.

As the Plum Line's Greg Sargent wrote:

Obama is rated better than Bush on national security and terrorism and the handling of terror suspects - the central front in the national security battle with the Cheneyites right now.

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[T]he poll shows clearly that there's no justification whatsoever for the Dems' strategy of receding meekly into the background on these issues, rather than vocally allying themselves with Obama on them.