Though this year marks the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, economic concerns–especially those pertaining to the deficit–continue to dominate the national political conversation. This point was hammered home at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference held over the weekend in Washington, where new Republican lawmakers often ignored the subject of foreign affairs, while the more experienced officials tried to rescue national security from the back burner.
I asked former Attorney General Michael Mukasey whether national security would make a comeback leading up to the 2012 presidential election. He responded:
“Part of the problem with its making a comeback is that what makes it make a comeback is something horrible happens. And I hope it doesn’t take that in order to do it. It has to be a constant concern, and that’s a problem. It’s very hard to keep people’s attention on the fact that we are in a constant struggle because, after all, you can make restaurant reservations and go to the movies.”
Mukasey said that it was just as difficult to keep up the appropriate level of concern during the Cold War, but that vigilance is what, in the end, led to our victory. The tenth anniversary of 9/11, he said, is a good time to remember that the attacks were only one blip on the timeline of our enemies’ ongoing battle against us.
“I think it’s important to understand that 9/11 was not the beginning nor the end of the threat. Those folks were taking target practice here in the 1980s. They pulled off other things here including the ’93 World Trade Center bombing. We had the bombing at the embassies [in Kenya and Tanzania], we had the bombing at the [USS] Cole, all preceding 9/11. And we’ve had plots since.”
But some of the GOP’s rising stars stuck to the two issues that seem to energize the conservative grassroots–as well as the general public–these days: the deficit and Obamacare.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson spoke forcefully and eloquently about the health care system and the culture of spending and entitlements in Washington. Pat Toomey, who won Arlen Specter’s seat in Pennsylvania in November, is as well versed on the budget issue as anyone (in fact, he tends to be so wonkish that few liberal blogs even wrote about his remarks at CPAC, an indication they simply don’t know nearly enough about the subject to criticize Toomey and that he stayed away from hyperbole). But Toomey also avoided national security issues.
Paul Ryan predictably focused on the budget. South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem offered perhaps the most convincing case against the death tax I’ve heard from a Republican in a very long time, and she hit liberal education policies as well.
Isolationist Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s only foreign policy prescriptions were (much like those of his father, Ron Paul) vague remarks about cutting defense spending and, instead of offering any specifics whatsoever, tossed angry accusations at the crowd that anyone who didn’t favor cutting the defense budget was a “big government conservative”–a remark that was met with cheers from those bused in by the father-son team and eye-rolls from everyone else.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, who is considering a 2012 presidential bid, focused much of his speech on foreign policy, as did former Amb. John Bolton, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The split was interesting, considering the fact that the regime of Hosni Mubarak was dissolving as the conference was taking place. Santorum knocked the Obama administration’s inconsistent foreign policy, supporting the Egyptian protesters but not the Iranians who took to the streets after the fraudulent elections in 2009. I asked him to clarify what would have been the correct response from the Obama administration in this case. He said the administration was so passive it missed the opportunity to respond at all.
“The right thing to do would have been to be involved before this,” Santorum said, adding that because of Obama’s failure to respond to the Iranian protesters, “we didn’t have the moral authority.”
Bolton struck a similar chord, but doubled down on the issue of national security. When RedState’s Moe Lane asked Bolton what the primary issue should be for 2012 presidential candidates, Bolton responded:
“Well I think the primary concern always has to be the person who can best defend American national security. Obviously domestic issues are critically important to people’s everyday lives, but if the president can’t draw the ring around America’s interests in the world and protect them, it doesn’t much matter what our health care system looks like.”
The one rising star who gave foreign affairs a prominent place in his speech was Rep. Allen West, who gave the keynote. And if another panel at CPAC is any indication, this might actually explain West’s popularity.
Pollster John McLaughlin led a panel Friday morning about public attitudes toward national security. A majority of respondents to a recent McLaughlin poll–of both parties and independents as well–repeatedly expressed concern about terrorism emanating from Iran, Iran’s nuclear program, and, most importantly, what Americans considered the top threat to the United States: terrorism.
“Underneath the economy, security is a glass jaw,” McLaughlin said. “The voters are so far ahead of us on this issue.”
Veteran pollster Pat Caddell concurred, saying there is “large anxiety” on this issue–and it’s bipartisan.
Those results suggest that West’s popularity may stem in part from the fact that he fuses concern about budgetary issues–though admittedly without the depth of expertise exhibited by someone like Paul Ryan–with a plainspoken expression of national security that resonates with a conservative base tired of the political correctness of an administration that won’t use the word victory.
“Secure our borders and enforce our laws,” West said in his CPAC keynote. “Recognize the emerging threats on the Korean Peninsula; recognize the threats that are coming out of South and Central America; and confront the radical Islamic non-state, non-uniformed belligerents who transit freely across borders killing and promoting a 7th century ideology that is anathema to the values of America and to Western civilization.”
West also spent some time with us in the blogger’s lounge before his speech, and he seemed more comfortable taking questions from the press than reading from a script.
West’s popularity and McLaughlin’s poll results indicate that the country hasn’t forgotten about national security. If the president’s response to the crisis in Egypt is any indication, Republicans may be in even better shape than they think.