How it all could go to shit

Christopher Hitchens is a smart guy.

In this essay, he's hedging his vote for Barack Obama. He's a little queasy with all this happiness and history that's going on. He's thinking maybe we've all forgotten that our troubles haven't magically gone away (and by we, I mean the ones who are actually enjoying the victory).

And I have no trouble being in complete agreement.

I think Obama will make for a terrific president. Of the people who ran this time around, he was the best choice by far. But I'm not stupid, previous post not withstanding. I can see how all this confetti can turn to ash.

The economy is pretty scary, but I'm pretty confident. I think it will rebound after a few years. It won't be pretty, but I have hope that Obama will act out of the best interests of the vast majority of Americans. I think we can emerge as leaders in the new economy. We will because we must.

That's not what worries me. What worries me is the unknown factor: terrorism.

The Bush Administration deserves as much credit for the absence of an attack on America since Sept. 11 as it does for the letting 9/11 happen on their watch. Which is to say, very little.

Few people saw it coming; the administration's failure was our failure. Since that time, no other attack has occurred, while some have reportedly been thwarted. Credit is due, but we cannot forget that Bush has drastically increased executive power, installed a culture of torture and trampled on rights we used to think were quite important -- Habeas corpus? -- and American . And lest we forget, we've lost more American men and women in Iraq than we did on 9/11. So success is really a relative thing, here.

Anyway, this isn't a history lesson. This is how it could all go to shit. If by some chance al Qaeda or some nutballs with simpathies, etc., manage an attack on America under an Obama presidency, the reaction, I imagine, will be quite different than when Dumbo sat and read the children's book for 7 minutes.

To conservatives, this will be all the ammunition they need. Their empty lines about appeasment and terrorists and their insinuations that Democrats are just faggy wimps who can't stand up to big, bag Arabs might take hold.

This is a danger to any Democrat in a post-9/11 world, where Republicans have taken the issue of terrorism and made it into a campaign slogan.

I fear, though, that Obama's newness and his differentness make him especially vulnerable. I only hope I'm proved wrong. Because I believe that the way to peace is not by torture and bombings and wars of choice. But we can be a trigger-happy country when we're attacked.

After 9/11, Bush was given the ultimate blank check: With a 90% approval rating, he had the ability to take us wherever he would like. He chose where we are now, which was not only a giant waste but an insult to those that died on that day. He fucked up so royally that he's now below Nixon's lowest approval ratings, and his presidency is a joke.

I only hope that in the terrible event of another attack that Americans give Obama the same chance. If they do, I expect him to lead with boldness and courage and righteous conviction. If they don't, then his presidency will have been a blip of hope on a dark period in our history. And the crew Americans so emphatically rejected in 2006 and 2008 will slither back into power, desperate, hungry and with revenge on their mind.

For now, it's perhaps best to savor the moment.