Newsweek: "If the president plays it right, he can wrap up the race"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Advantage, Bush
The White House can control the agenda in ways that Kerry cannot. If the president plays it right, he can wrap up the race

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5625195/site/newsweek/

Aug. 6 - Republicans are better at the game of politics. Take this week's elevated terror alert. Whether you think it was warranted or not, it's a win-win for George W. Bush. He says we're fighting terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here in our country. Yet we're told to prepare for an attack that could come any time and exceed the 9/11 toll in death and destruction.

The subliminal message of the Bush campaign is that a vote for John Kerry is a vote for Osama bin Laden. You can buy T-shirts that say that. They're advertised on the web site of the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper owned by the Unification Church. Bush wants us to believe that terrorists the world over are cringing at the thought of four more years of his tough-guy policies.

If there's no terrorist attack between now and the election, Bush can claim he kept us safer. If there is an attack on our soil of the magnitude of 9/11, most analysts agree that the American public would rally around the president at least in the short term. Either way, Bush wins the election.

There are other ways Bush can burnish his leadership credentials. Rumors that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is burned out and looking to leave the administration could open the door for a quick elevation of the man who personifies leadership to Americans of all political stripes, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Bush and Giuliani campaigning together on a pledge to keep the country safe could erase whatever gains Kerry makes as a challenger during a time of war. Some Democrats still believe Bush could replace Vice President Dick Cheney after the convention, say in late September, which would be so unprecedented in presidential politics that everybody would accept it was Cheney's choice for health reasons. If Bush named John McCain as his running mate, game over.