So there’s this:

Party Better Able to Protect U.S. From Terrorism, September 2002-September 2012

Pretty amazing, if you ask me, though not surprising. The GOP had a very strong advantage on these issues post-9/11, one which declined each and every year of the Iraq War. Still, they managed to maintain an edge, right up until they decided to nominate for president a man conspicuously uninterested in security or foreign policy issues, and who speaks absolute nonsense when he does deign to discuss them. I figured this would hurt the party’s image, I didn’t realize it would be so dramatic (it doesn’t hurt that Pres. Obama has one or two anti-terror accomplishments of his own to boast of…)

I always try to find the context for things like this, so here it is: what does the GOP build on to try to get back into office? The economy is eventually going to get better, if history is any guide, during Obama’s second term. It typically takes five years to recover from a financial crisis, which puts that recovery right ahead of the ’14 midterms. Good luck. Domestic policy? They can’t keep what they believe under wraps forever, and a better economy would mean that more scrutiny would be given to those proposals–throw the rascals out doesn’t poll too well when things are good. National security looks like a draw, and foreign policy is an active disadvantage. What then?

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