Fine Analysis of The "Big Issue" in The Election

Link

The always-excellent RealClearPolitics offers a short editorial today called "What It Al Boils Down To." I highly recommend it, and you can find it here.

The piece focuses on this exchange on Meet the Press last Sunday:

"Tim Russert: Do you see Bush being re-elected?

"William F. Buckley: I don't think that Bush has done anything disqualifying him. He had a lousy intelligence system, manifestly, but nobody thinks that he acted capriciously. I think if we all had been told exactly what he was told, it's pretty logical that we would have proceeded to do what he did.

"Ron Brownstein: Look, I think that the Senate Intelligence Committee report does frame what I believe is the central issue in this campaign. And I differ a little with Bill Buckley because I don't think that all Americans agree that any president would have made this decision based on this information. I think that goes to the crux of the choice that they face."

That's the question, RCP says: What do people think John Kerry would have done with that information? How would it have differed from what Bush did, and would it have been enough?