Security Moms Tilting Toward President Bush

During the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, the term "soccer moms" was used to describe predominantly white, suburban, middle- and upper-middle-class, college-educated women with children. The economy was a key factor in those elections, and those women tended to support the Democratic nominee. Post-9/11, those women are now being dubbed "security moms" and are leaning toward reelecting President Bush.

Wednesday night's final presidential debate covered the domestic issues, and the focus in the swing states is still the economy, but many women are finding that their priorities have changed dramatically since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Mary Reilly, a Staten Islander, sent me an e-mail about a new grassroots group called SecurityMoms4Bush.The founder writes on its Web page,www.moms4bush.com,the reasons she decided to form a group to help reelect the president. A Westchester mother of only a few months when September 11 attacks occurred, she found her life turned upside-down by the attacks, which damaged the security of her family.

She writes: "Personally, during a normal election year, I would be right up there on my soap box. This year is so very different. The issues outside of our fight on terror are not as important in the big picture today.

"You see, if we do not take the proper steps to win this war on terror now, the domestic issues will never matter. If we do not take steps now to prevent as best we can future terrorist attacks in the U.S., who cares if we have campaign finance laws? If we don't show these terrorists that we are the superpower, that we are now, and that they can't mess with us now, they will win."

The group is organizing rallies in seven states tomorrow and Sunday. Two will be in Staten Island and one will be in New Jersey. Check the Web site for locations.

Unfortunately, the site does not name the woman who founded the group, but her letter makes a point that resonates with many mothers concerned with their family's safety. She writes:

"We cannot risk change at this time because of domestic issues. These issues will not matter one iota, if we are being attacked by terrorists. Let's keep our country safe and then we can all come out of our respective corners and hash out those other issues we may have a passion to fight. We need to be courageous.

"We need to remember 9/11."

As for the reason she has decided to vote for Mr. Bush and not Senator Kerry, she writes that Mr. Bush has the determination to do what is "best for our country, our future, our children's future, his children's future."

There are also many voters, however, who feel that Mr. Kerry can do a better job and that his Vietnam experience, rather than his 20 years in the Senate, makes him more qualified than Mr. Bush, who served in the National Guard.

Anyone who aspires to the highest position in the country must be prepared to undergo scrutiny, but I doubt Mr. Kerry ever thought that his reputation would be sullied so thoroughly as it was by the book "Unfit for Command." I ordered my copy from Amazon.com, since it's hard to find in Manhattan bookstores, and it's my opinion that the book diminished its authors, John O'Neil and Jerome Corsi, by including their doubts about Mr. Kerry's Purple Heart honors. Whether they were deserved or, as the authors allege, they weren't, Mr. Kerry was in harm's way and could have been killed during the four months he was in country. By the same token, young Mr. Bush was in danger every time during the four years he flew the F-102 fighter jet. Six National Guardsmen died in accidents over the years, including one during the time Mr. Bush was in the Guard. I believe that both Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush were brave young men.

But Mr. Kerry's behavior after the war and his record in the Senate demonstrate that he has no real love for the military or any war. In the epilogue of the book "The New Soldier," Mr. Kerry argues about the conditions that must be met before he would ever go to war again. The last line reads:

"I will not go unless the people of this country decide for themselves that we must all of us go."

That is not the voice of a leader. It's 30 years later, and Mr. Kerry is still waiting for others to decide what he should do in the middle of a war.

That's not very reassuring to a security or a soccer mom in 2004.