The new politics of national tragedy [View All]

[cally]

Washington -- There was no place for politics on Sept. 11, 2001.

New York's mayor, a Republican, raced to the inflamed World Trade Center towers. The secretary of transportation, a Democrat, ordered planes out of the nation's skies. Fund-raisers were canceled. Political ads were pulled from TV. Members of Congress from both parties gathered on the steps of the abandoned U. S. Capitol to sing "God Bless America."

Driven by necessity and fear, Americans stood united behind a president who less than a year before had won a bitterly contested election in which he had not received a majority of the votes.


It may be a measure of how comfortable Americans have become in two years with the new world order. Or perhaps it is a sign of political strategists trying to play off people's fears.

Whatever the reason, bare-knuckle campaigns are back. Partisanship has returned. And now, a little more than a year away from the next presidential election, terror itself has become a potent political weapon.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/09/10/MN294170.DTL