The Spanish are smarter than us

Hi, I’m back. And I wish I could say that it was good to be home but 60 degrees and sunny will always trump 30 degrees with snow. Sniff.

Meanwhile it’s nice to know that life through the looking glass continues. I’m still getting caught up on the news coming out of Spain, but I’m already inclined to believe that David Brooks is dead wrong. Not simply because Brooks is wrong about 99 percent of the time but because the logic doesn’t follow.

One of the whispered fears over here on the left is that there will be another terrorist attack and this will shore up support for President Pig-in-Shit before the election. Because a frightened electorate is a stupid electorate. Except that this makes no sense. If there was a terrorist attack I can see the Rove spin machine might try to make it work for Bush. “You see? We are still in danger! You don’t want French-looking John Kerry in charge in these times do you?” But if—God forbid—there should be an attack here on the scale of the Madrid bombings, Rove will have a hard time explaining how two terrorist attacks on Bush’s watch make the Democrats less capable of governing.

And I fail to see how Spain is caving in to al Qaeda. José María Aznar justified going to war by claiming that helping the United States would help them in their own fight against terrorism. Clearly he was wrong and the elections prove that. Also the fact that Aznar was trying to use the attacks against the Basques when signs clearly pointed to Islamic fundamentalists went a long way towards discrediting his decisions regarding Iraq and the war on terrorism.

So the Spanish said. “Sorry we think your full of it,” and gave Aznar his walking papers. Are we that smart? I wonder sometimes. Perhaps I’m wrong and if there is another attack we’ll all go back to that September 12th world where Bush is the Savior President come to make the world safe again from terror and liberals.

But I hope I’m right.