Republicans struggling with insecurity

George Tenet's resignation has added to a growing feeling that the US may be safer with a Democrat in the White House, says Philip James

Friday June 4, 2004

…To the outside world, it is looking more and more as though Mr Bush cannot keep his house in order. What is more, his national security credentials - which he was hoping would safeguard his re-election - look increasingly shaky.

John Kerry now has the chance to press home a theme he has carefully exploited over the last few days. It is one going against conventional political wisdom: that the US is safer with a Democrat in office than a Republican.

For the better part of three decades, and certainly from the Carter presidency to the present day, the operating assumption has been that Republicans are strong on defence, Democrats not so much.

However, a poorly-prosecuted and unnecessary war, Mr Tenet's resignation and what promises to be a long, hot summer of revelations about just how badly this administration has mismanaged the nation's intelligence apparatus threaten to alter the equation.

Mr Kerry may be able to flip the "strong on defence" stereotype and fully reclaim it for the Democrats for the first time since the Truman era.