Terror Alerts Correlate with Dips in Bush's Popularity

JuliusBlog has compiled a list of Terror Alerts issued after "bad news" for the Bush Administration was made public.

It's compelling but, as Crooked Timber points out:

I don’t think that it’s too hackish to say that a lot has gone wrong for Bush in the last year, but many of the most harmful stories were not met by a timely terror warning or capture announcement. I’m thinking of Richard Clarke, Valerie Plame, and the first release of pictures from Abu Ghraib.

Given the debate about national security after the release of the 9/11 Report, it seems clear we now live in an ongoing age of national insecurity. President Bush, in his "black and white," good guys verses bad way would say Al Qaeda is to blame. Yet the situation is much grayer. And the debate should weigh all the factors, including the Administration's policies on terror.

Ronald Reagan's 1980 election slogan keeps resonating in my ears: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"