‘We have people across this country who are scared to death,” New Jersey governor Chris Christie declared loudly at this week’s Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas.
Virtually the entire debate was based upon this premise. Which is understandable. Since the bloody Islamist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, terrorism has shot up as the chief concern for most Americans, particularly Republican voters.
“For most of 2015, the country’s mood, and thus the presidential election, was defined by anger and the unevenness of the economic recovery,” pollster Fred Yang of Hart Research Associates explained upon the release of the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. “Now that has abruptly changed to fear.”
Only 34 percent approve of President Obama’s handling of the Islamic State, according to the poll, and more Americans are worried about terrorism than at any time since the aftermath of 9/11.
This abrupt change in the climate explains why Hillary Clinton is suddenly talking much tougher about terrorism and why the president is keen to get some good national-security photo ops in before he leaves for vacation.