Moving Beyond 9/11

Andrew Sullivan has a good piece on Barack Obama, concluding he may be unstoppable and identifying him with Reagan. One comment, though, stood out to me:

To listen to a stump speech five or so years after 9/11 and wait for almost half a speech until he mentions it is disconcerting. And yet, it is also bound up, surely, with his appeal. That appeal is partly to take us past the 9/11 moment, and describe a journey forward that isn't obviously into darkness.

It's been five and a half years since 9/11. Why should that event still loom over so many other far more pressing issues today? No, I'm not saying that terrorism is not important and not a threat to national security. But I have long maintained that as a nation we have been too fixated on the horror of that day, an event that was in the end an anomaly. A catastrophic one to say the least, but an anomaly all the same.
The consequence of fixating on that day and elevating the threat of terrorism over other issues is George Bush, whose only lasting accomplishment in his so-called war on terror is to aid the terrorists by giving them Iraq as a training area. The primary focus of Bush's 2004 campaign was terrorism, the threat it posed, and how he was the only one who could defend us. Yes, I'm running the country into the ground. Yes, the deficit is skyrocketing. Yes, I'm assaulting your civil liberties. No, we don't have healthcare for everyone. Yes, I'm putting incompetent people into high positions in the administration, and people like those in New Orleans suffer in consequence. Yes, I'm alienating our friends. Yes, the greatest success we've had in regime change is with the regimes of our remaining friends. Yes, I'm soiling the reputation of our country around the world. But.... 9/11. 9/11. 9/11!

Personally, I find it refreshing to have someone with the courage to not focus on 9/11 and to be willing to say that there are other issues that need addressing.