Today’s Important Message: You Should Not Live in Fear

Today on NRO

ANDREW C. McCARTHY: Obama's belief that he can "manage" the Islamic State may collide with reality. A Mismanage-able Problem.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Countries don't act only in a narrow, largely financial definition of self-interest. National Honor Matters.

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: In politics as with animal attacks, we fear the fantastic while the mundane threatens. Consider the Moose.

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: The St. Patrick's Day parade is not about politics or sex. The Presence at St. Patrick's.

SLIDESHOW: Apple's New Toys.

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

September 10, 2014

Today's Important Message: You Should Not Live in Fear

Are Americans safer from Islamist terror? We sure as heck don't feel that way.

The nation is on edge in the wake of brutal beheadings of journalists by Islamic extremists — with more Americans saying the United States is less safe now than at any point since 9/11, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll shows.

The exclusive poll reveals that 47% of Americans believe the country is less safe now than before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That's a significant increase from even a year after the twin towers fell when in September 2002 just 20% of the country said the nation was less safe.

In my piece on NRO today:

Ed Royce (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, seems less concerned. On Monday, he declared on CNN's New Day that the United States doesn't have intelligence indicating there are any active plans for a terrorist attack ahead of the 9/11 anniversary. "No, we don't have any information about credible planning for an attack," Royce said.

"Any time you get around a major anniversary in the minds of al-Qaeda and its affiliates, that can be a time of increased concern and intelligence monitoring," said Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "We know they're so fixated and obsessed on those particular dates. Given that it's coming up on 9/11, we know there are operational activities, both al-Qaeda and this new threat matrix of all these al-Qaeda affiliates. Some have aspirations to do Western attacks, some have capabilities to do Western attacks, all of that just makes the challenge all the more difficult for the agencies we charge with stopping terror attacks."

If you're feeling anxiety . . . don't.

Not because the threat isn't real, but because you are not meant to live in fear. There have been 4,747 days since 9/11. In that time, the bad guys have managed a few hits but only a handful on the home front. Fort Hood; the Boston Marathon bombing. The LAX counter shooting; the Arkansas recruiting-office shooting.

They've also had some near-misses: The underwear bomber flying into Detroit; the 2010 Times Square bombing attempt.

If you're living outside the homeland, you're at a higher risk, but again, for most of those 4,747 days, the good guys have kept the bad guys bottled up or stymied.

The odds are in your favor today, and every day. A lot of dedicated men and women are working around the clock to keep you safe. There's not much left for us to do, other than point out an unattended bag or if we see someone behaving suspiciously, tell a cop.

That NBC News/WSJ poll also found:

According to the poll, 61 percent of American voters believe that the United States taking military action against ISIS is in United States' interest, versus 13 percent who don't. (Another 24 percent said they don't know enough to have an opinion.)

That's a significant change when a similar question was asked last year about the U.S. taking possible action against Syria's government after its reported use of chemical weapons.

Back then, only 21 percent said action was in the nation's interest, while 33 percent said it wasn't.

More Bad Election News for Democrats

That Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll also had some brutal numbers for the Democrats in the midterm elections:

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found a larger share of Americans think the country is on the wrong track than at any previous midterm election in the last 20 years. Mr. Obama's approval rating — 40% — is lower than that of former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at this stage of their own midterm meltdowns in 2006 and 1994, when both suffered significant losses in Congress.

"The news is not good for Democrats," said Democratic pollster Fred Yang, who conducts the Journal poll with Republican Bill McInturff. "It's hard to sugarcoat these findings, which herald a tough election."

Josh Jordan notes, "As bad as NBC/WSJ poll is for Dems, could be worse if they gave likely voter numbers. Going from registered voters to likely voters netted the GOP 6 points on CNN's poll and 5 points on ABC's poll."

Meanwhile, in Connecticut . . .

Connecticut likely voters say Tom Foley, the Republican challenger in the governor's race, would do a better job than Gov. Dannel Malloy, the Democrat, handling two top issues, the economy/jobs and government spending, as they give Foley a 46 — 40 percent lead eight weeks before Election Day, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

The Pain of Watching an Abuser Use His Victim One More Time

Janay Rice's statement — criticizing the media for offering "unwanted opinions" and offering no sense of disapproval of her husband, Ray Rice — creates a lot of static for the usual convenient messages in the aftermath of the Ray Rice video.

We like to say, "this sort of thing is intolerable and inexcusable." The problem is some victims are conditioned by their circumstances to insist to everyone else that this sort of thing is tolerable and excusable.

In Rice's case, the act was caught on video, and there's really nothing in dispute. We're trying to enforce a broad cultural consensus that this sort of action is unacceptable, and must carry severe consequences . . . except that the victim, for reasons we don't yet know or understand, publicly insists otherwise.

The folks at Think Progress decree, "You Shouldn't Ask Why Janay Rice Stayed," contending "When we solely focus on whether a survivor stays with or leaves their abusive partner, we place all the responsibility on the survivor rather than holding an abusive partner accountable." Fair enough; I think you have to look far and wide to find anyone who would contend that the only focus in this circumstance should be on whether or not the abused partner stays.

But right now we're witnessing how abusers can avoid consequences by using their victims as a shield once scrutiny appears.

Those of us outside abusive relationships are trying to send a clear, indisputable, unified message far and wide about what is acceptable and not acceptable. But on three separate occasions Ray Rice has used Janay to protect him from the consequences of her actions. We don't know why she did this — perhaps fear, perhaps concern for their child, perhaps a desire to make the whole episode go away — but using her in this manner proved spectacularly effective.

First, Janay Rice refused to testify against her husband. (Of course, some district attorneys prosecute domestic assault even when the spouse refuses to testify.)

Then in May, she held a press conference with her husband, helping restore his image to the public:

Janay Rice sat next to her husband during the press conference and, curiously, also spoke, apologizing for her "role in that night" though simple assault charges against her were eventually dropped.

The public, or at least a lot Ravens fans, all too eagerly accepted the notion that all was well and that this was a minor incident worth leaving in the past:

Ray Rice pounded his chest twice and pointed up to the crowd. It was clear this moment meant a lot to him.

Rice has been in the court of public opinion, but he had yet to be out in public.

In his first major appearance Monday night at M&T Bank Stadium as part of an open training camp practice, Rice got a standing ovation from the Ravens fans that have followed him for the past six years.

Rice has been under a lot of national scrutiny, magnified with the announcement of his two-game suspension. His hometown fans showed him a lot of love, however.

The standing-O came as Rice jogged onto the field. He ran to a corner of the stadium and away from the rest of his teammates, and it was clear who fans were cheering for. Rice gave them a smile and salute, as if to thank them.

The following month Janay Rice met with NFL Commissioner Goodell in the presence of her husband, and urged leniency on the part of the league:

Rice's wife, a source said, made a moving and apparently convincing case to Goodell during a June 16 hearing at Goodell's office in Manhattan — attended by Rice, GM Ozzie Newsome, club president Dick Cass of Baltimore; and Goodell, Jeff Pash and Adolpho Birch of the league — that the incident in the hotel elevator was a one-time event, and nothing physical had happened in their relationship before or since. She urged Goodell, the source said, to not ruin Rice's image and career with his sanctions.

Finally, this week she blamed the media and insisted that "we will continue to grow and show the world what real love is."

It's easy to feel mad at her for so thoroughly defending her husband from the consequences of his actions. But we're not in her shoes, and we don't know what's going through her mind in these past months or right now.

Because the victim in an abuse case may be acting under duress, threats, or some other sort of psychological pressure, authorities outside the relationship have a responsibility to dig a bit further than the assurance of the victim that everything is fine and best forgotten. This one is on that prosecutor and judge, then the commissioner, and then finally the public that was so eager to re-embrace the running back before the video.

As for the commissioner:

Authorities in New Jersey did not turn over requested video footage from Revel Hotel and Casino despite requests for all evidence from the NFL, the league said Tuesday.

"We requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including any video that may exist," the NFL said in a statement Tuesday. "We spoke to members of the New Jersey State Police and reached out multiple times to the Atlantic City Police Department and the Atlantic County prosecutor's office. That video was not made available to us and no one in our office saw it until yesterday."

In an interview with CBS that aired Tuesday, commissioner Roger Goodell said, "We had not seen any videotape of what occurred in the elevator. We assumed that there was a video, we asked for video, we asked for anything that was pertinent, but we were never granted that opportunity."

ADDENDA: A beautiful observation from Amy Walter: "Focus group of 10 swing women voters in AR. Asked about Koch brothers. None could say who they were: 'Are they a marketing company?'"

When you say "Koch Brothers", most swing voters think of these guys:

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