President Bush is hanging onto the Reagan wing of the Republican Party — and the Reagan Democrats and independents — by a thin thread called “national security.” Unless he is willing to dramatically change his high-roller approach to spending other people’s money, he’d better pray that thread holds.
From which I draw two orthogonal conclusions: (1) A terrorist attack is almost certain to happen in 2004, since what Bush really needs to play to his base, he tends to get; and (2) Dean's "Republicans can't handle money" line should play very well in New Hampshire, particularly if there's some fiscal catastrophe (as opposed to the ongoing crisis) between now and the primary.