It hasn’t been a great month for Bush and his national security gaffes. The embarrassing string of comments haven’t dominated the news — presumably because he never used the word “lesbian,” which the media really seems to care about — but for a man who claims to say what he means and mean what he says, it’s been a bit of a problem.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend we learned, for example, that our safety from terrorism is “up in the air<\/a>.”<\/p>\n [In an interview with the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity and Colmes”], taped on Saturday and released on Sunday, Bush said U.S. security was “much better” since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. <\/p>\n “Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up — you know, is up in the air. I would hope we could make it a lot more safe by staying on the offensive,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Um, Mr. President? That’s not your message. Just ask John Kerry<\/a>.<\/p>\n “You make me president of the United States, we’re going to win the war on terror,” Kerry said at an evening rally in Boca Raton, Fla. “It’s not going to be up in the air whether or not we make America safe.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n By my count, this is Bush’s sixth significant screw-up with regards to national security remarks in the last 30 days. It follows the president’s assertion that the “Taliban no longer is in existence<\/a>,” the bizarre “catastrophic success<\/a>” line, his “miscalculation<\/a>” admission, his lie about no longer being concerned about Osama bin Laden<\/a>, and his stated belief that the United States cannot win a war on terror<\/a>. <\/p>\n