Biden on the Paramount Importance of Fighting Terror

One last excerpt from that 2005 article on Biden and the Democratic hawks. This is the sort of thing that sounds discordant today (especially on Martha's Vineyard, which is a very September 10th sort of place, September 9th, even) but it certainly has power in parts of the country ill-disposed to Obama:

(Biden) has come to realize, he said, that many Democrats still haven't grasped the political importance of September 11th, and again he recalled how he had urged Kerry to keep his campaign message focussed on terrorism. Kerry, Biden said, would tell voters that he would "fight terror as hard as Bush," but then he would add, "and I'll help you economically." "What is Bush saying?" Biden said. "Terror, terror, terror, terror, terror. I would say to John, 'Let me put it to you this way. The Lord Almighty, or Allah, whoever, if he came to every kitchen table in America and said, "Look, I have a Faustian bargain for you, you choose. I will guarantee to you that I will end all terror threats against the United States within the year, but in return for that there will be no help for education, no help for Social Security, no help for health care." What do you do?'
"My answer," Biden said, "is that seventy-five per cent of the American people would buy that bargain." ♦