"I UNDERSTAND THE STAKES"

Matthew Yglesias on Tapped:

G. BUSH: The question is: Who can best lead the country in a time of war? That's really what the debate ought to be about. And I think it's me. Because I understand the stakes.

But Bush's framing of the issue exclusively in terms of the fact that he understands "the stakes" is bizarre and indefensible. It's like saying you're qualified to play quarterback at the Super Bowl because you know it's a really, really important game.

I think this is more a matter of Bush once again using code to speak to his base. "The stakes," I suggest, to a certain portion of the populace are precisely these: the very existence of the United States and Christianity in the world. Radical Islamofascists want to remake the world in their own image and recognize that the U.S.A. is the only country that will stand up to them (but only if George Bush is in power). They'll stop at nothing to destroy our will, our way of life, and our people, so that they can take over our country and destroy Christianity. This is a religious war, fellas, with the forces of darkness battling the forces of light (we're the light). Thererfore, it's incumbent upon us to remake our way of life (slimmer civil liberties, power consolidated among those who can be "trusted" to be "loyal," eradication of gay and abortion rights, enabling legislation to allow greater unity of church and state, a return to male-dominated institutions, etc.) before they can do it for us.

It's our Taliban or their Taliban.