The opening caption is unfair (but funny) as The One never says Islamic terror will disappear if we elect him, but given his dogmatic misconceptions about the nature of the threat, it’s worth listening to this as a gloss on the year in terrorism. According to the Rand Corporation, of the 30 homegrown plots detected since 9/11, fully one-third of them surfaced in 2009. Doesn’t mean McCain would have done better, but if the pace of attacks is actually picking up, maybe it’s time to revisit the Hopenchange premise that jihadis care particularly who the president is. In fact, this clip serves as a neat synthesis of his foreign policy, such as it is: By dint of his pure personal awesomeness and sweet Bambi-esque empathy, we’re going to turn all sorts of would-be enemies to our side. Hasn’t worked yet with the Taliban, of course — or Iran, or China, or Russia, or even Hugo Chavez — but it’ll work, er, eventually. No wonder the Democrats aren’t rushing to his aid this week.

Exit question: Which crazed Cheney-like hawk uttered this ode to preemptive action yesterday? “I’d rather, in the interest of protecting people, overreact rather than underreact.” Answer here.