A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday raised the prospect of a terror attack before next year's election, warning that it could boost the GOP's efforts to hold on to the White House.

Discussing the possibility of a new nightmare assault while campaigning in New Hampshire, Clinton also insisted she is the Democratic candidate best equipped to deal with it.

"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?' But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world," Clinton told supporters in Concord.

"So I think I'm the best of the Democrats to deal with that," she added.

Not to make too much of this, but this kind of commentary is risible. It implies that Republicans look forward to terrorist attacks taking place so that they may benefit politically, an appalling and despicable notion that shouldn't even go over well in an exclusively partisan gathering on the other side of the partisan divide. It also leaves the reader wondering why it is that Clinton is "the best of the Democrats to deal with that," given that she offers no reason for her boast whatsoever.

I realize that the Clinton Presidential campaign is the most disciplined one out there on the Democratic side. It may be the most disciplined out there period, given that so many of the people who work on it also worked on the campaigns of Clinton the Husband. But comments like this--comments that are inexplicable at best and just plain wrong given even most generous readings--show that Hillary Clinton can be as gaffe-prone as any other candidate out there. Someone should call her on this particular statement. And quick. It would be fascinating to listen to her defend her dubious and demagogic claims.