Politics and 9/11

The last few weeks, the last few months, it has seemed to me that we have been moving away from the shadows of 9/11. Our reality seemed to have assimilated the event and integrated it into the daily rhythms of our lives.

It has not gone away, especially in New York and Washington, nor can we distance ourselves from the effects. We have troubles in enough places. The news from Iraq is generally discouraging. Much is directly a result of our government’s reactions to 9/11.

But the moment itself, the day itself, its shock, fear and the nearness of tears to eyes seemed to have moved away from us. We had moved into dealing with the results rather than re-experiencing the event itself, over and over again, in a kind of national post traumatic stress syndrome.

In watching the news this week, though, I realized we are all going to be living in the shadow of that day all through this Presidential election. The race now seems to be between the sitting President and Senator Kerry, who swooped up enough victories on Super Tuesday to seal his claim upon the Democratic nomination.

I had prepared myself to relive the Viet Nam era in this election as, for the first time in the nation’s history, both candidates would be men of that generation. The stage had been set by Kerry’s comrades in arms marching onto the national stage to declare their loyalty to the man who had led them through the Mekong Delta while George W. Bush served his country in the National Guard – finding himself in the spotlight due to the conflicting memories of fellow Guardsmen who could or could not recall seeing him being where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there.

What I was not prepared for, nor, as far as I can tell, was the rest of the country, was for the first political ads out of the Republican camp to swath the President in images of 9/11, played over and over and over again in a thirty second spot.

The news debate has raged about whether it was appropriate for him to do it or not. It is tabloid banner news in New York City. It is story number one on television.

The images of the firemen raising a flag down at Ground Zero in the middle of a campaign ad caused me to step back from the television set with a peculiar feeling I have yet to completely identify.

Granted, those days were probably the best days of the Bush Presidency but still…I don’t quite emotionally understand doing this. As I write this, the television is playing the local news and “the furor” over the ads is growing. The question asked on the airwaves is: is this good politics or bad taste? It is particularly sensitive in New York and the feelings here are strong, both pro and con.

However, even if the ad is withdrawn, the gauntlet has been thrown down. The President has given a speech which lays the blame for the economic downturn we have all experienced on 9/11, which we all know is more than a little true.

At the end of the day, the manner in which this administration is judged by this country in its response to that event will probably be the pivotal point for the electorate in determining if Mr. Bush has a second term. He will be evaluated [and has now set himself up to be judged] by the choices he made in responding to 9/11.

He will be judged by the assessment of the payments made to Halliburton, by the assessment of intelligence before the war that declared there were weapons of mass destruction which now cannot be found, and by every other act committed in the name of that day.

Following the ad it almost seems as if 9/11 is the rock upon which this Presidency has decided it will be judged.

If that is so, it is going to be a slippery rock. As one commentator on CNN mused, “Does this mean Kerry can show the body bags returning from Iraq?”