In the event of a strike

Via Matt, here's our front runner:

"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.

She's in a roundabout way making the point that another terrorist attack will send Americans into the GOP in droves. But that's only the case inasmuch as people outside the party of war--a group that technically includes Hillary Clinton herself--are too scared or politically compromised to say why a reactionary, belligerent response to terrorism isn't good strategy. If another attack occurs, and the Democrats all make the case that their party will better prevent the next attack, then the tragedy might not redound to the benefit of the GOP. If, on the other hand, another attack occurs and Hillary Clinton is front and center trying not to be a Republican, but also basically parroting their rhetoric, then everybody loses.