POLITICIANS WILL COURT NEW 'MOMS' AND 'DADS' IN 2008

Will reports of a stronger al-Qaida bring "security moms" back into the GOP camp?

Andrea Sarvady, a left-leaning columnist, writes the commentary this week, and Shaunti Feldhahn, a right-leaning columnist responds.

ANDREA SARVADY (COMMENTARY):

We now eagerly await the 2008 elections and birth announcements from the pundits welcoming Google Moms and iPod Dads (you heard it here first, folks). As exciting as that time will be, who isn't just a bit nostalgic for the "security moms" of 2004?

Ah, security moms. How the Republicans have missed them. It's been a whole year since a Pew Research Center poll showed that married female voters are "more inclined to vote Democratic than at any point since Sept. 11, 2001" -- this before Bush's popularity sank to the low double digits he wades in these days.

Where did it all go horribly wrong for that ladies' man, George Bush? He had some smooth moves all right. You'd be watching the news, fuming about the environment or our health care crisis. Suddenly a graphic would pop up, showing Code Orange leaning red. A shiver would overtake your body as you'd find yourself wondering if the kids are really OK at school. This "dial up the fear" approach worked at least somewhat on the security mom in each of us, truth be told.

Well, we're still afraid, but we're also distracted. Distracted by pictures of Abu Ghraib, rising body counts, a Supreme Court that threatens to base its rulings on whatever flew in 1789 and an attorney general who contradicts himself more than your 16-year-old with a case of beer in the trunk. Sure, we've managed to avoid another 9/11 on our shores, and that's not a small accomplishment. Yet a firestorm is brewing around the globe, and any mom can tell that it's exacerbated by our arrogant father-knows-best approach to foreign and domestic policy.

No, come this election year, the "insecurity moms" of 2008 are going to rise up and angrily vote out the party of bullying, lying and "protection without representation." Al-Qaida is scary, to be sure, but also frightening is the look on mom's face when you've been caught pulling the wool over her eyes. In fact, with the look she's giving George these days, his whole gang just might find themselves grounded for good.

SHAUNTI FELDHAHN (REBUTTAL):

There's a reason security moms voted for "Father Knows Best" in 2004: It's called "homeland security." And a June Gallup Poll shows Democrats have since become complacent about how necessary it is. Only 1 percent of Democratic voters think homeland security is the most important issue for the 2008 elections. Yet half think Iraq is. Is that backward, or what?

Our efforts in Iraq deserve attention, but many distracted security moms (OK, and iPod Dads) have forgotten that Iraq is only part of a much bigger picture. And those distractions are less about Abu Ghraib than about the unending media attention to Obama's vs. Clinton's war chests, the real estate crash or which young actress was arrested for a DUI this week.

As 9/11 becomes more entrenched in our history textbooks than our emotional memories, we no longer realize just how precarious and important our security really is. Our real estate difficulties are notable -- but insignificant compared to the economic crash that would follow a suitcase nuke detonating in Seattle or a rash of airplanes exploding over the Atlantic. In a recent ABC News interview, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussed just how close we came to the latter scenario last year, saying, "In terms of its intent, (the liquid bomb plot) was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivaled 9/11."

A recent nonpartisan survey by the Center for American Progress (CAP) showed that unlike average Americans, eight out of 10 experts "expect a terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11 within a decade." P.J. Crowley, CAP's director of homeland security, suggested in an interview that Americans who aren't as concerned, "probably don't believe there is going to be another attack. But we have to figure out how to have terrorism in our psyche. We cannot become complacent. We are vulnerable."

It is primarily because this administration has thus far kept us safe that security moms have been able to get distracted enough to nitpick about its methods. Bush may be branded as "arrogant," but he sure knows more about the threat than most Americans. I mean, really: With your life at stake, would you rather have "Father Knows Best" or Homer Simpson for a father?

COPYRIGHT 2007 SHAUNTI FELDHAHN AND ANDREA SARVADY