Bush Throws Down the Gauntlet

George W. Bush – breaking with an earlier Republican campaign strategy for localizing congressional races – is nationalizing Election 2006 around his vision of fighting “World War III” against Islamic militants and in defense of his claim to broad presidential powers, such as the right to lock up people he deems “enemy combatants.”

In effect, Bush is gambling that the Right’s powerful media apparatus, Republican organizational advantages and the residual fear from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks will trump the Democrats’ abilities to convince the American people that Bush’s vision represents a dire threat to the future of their democratic Republic.