the reign in Spain

It looks bad: terrorists attack, Spain votes their government out. But it's not that simple, and that's obvious even to experts like us who have never even been there.

Spain has been dealing with terrorists for 35 years. The U.S. is a neophyte by comparison, yet lectures everyone else on the subject. No Spanish government can relent in its efforts to protect its citizens from terrorists.

That Al Queda was said to possibly be involved in the latest attack may have just been the last straw for a populace that was overwhelmingly against their government's involvement in the Iraq war. They were put in the position of again swallowing its consequences, and they rebelled. They have enough to deal with. That's as plausible an explanation as any other.

The timing was unfortunate but the idea of "letting the terrorists dictate the election" works both ways. Should voters who want to make a statement against the Iraq war and get their country out of it, be prevented from doing so because it would look bad following a terrorist attack?

It's worth mentioning that a new poll shows a surprising 45% of Americans surveyed said that if another terrorist attack happens on U.S. soil, it would incline them to vote against Bush. That was about double the percentage of those who said it would incline them to vote for Bush.


In the meantime, the Bush attack machine which is outspending Kerry by something like 20 to 1, may be having an effect. Polls show Kerry is beginning to be defined as not having strong convictions. Perhaps people who believe TV advertising get the country they deserve, but that's no comfort for the rest of us who live here.

Kerry, who now has sufficient votes to be the nominee, can't depend on this cornucopia of Bush mistakes to continue. Somehow he has to keep from being defined by the Bushies and their collaborating media parrotheads, so that people will still be paying attention at convention time. That long heralded series of policy pronouncements might help, but they ought to get going on it.