How Kerry Should Handle the Terror Warnings

As Howard Dean said yesterday, I think it's obvious that even though the terror warnings are true, their release is suspicious enough to make one wonder whether they're politically motivated. That said, the bind that John Kerry finds himself in is that if he publicly questions these warnings, he'll appear as though he doesn't take these terror threats seriously (and let's not imagine what happens if they are accurate). On the other hand, when he doesn't respond, he allows the Bush campaign to take the wind out of his sails. So I suggest the following strategy:

Following up on his comments from the convention about Bush's incompetence, Kerry should make the question of politicized terror warnings an issue of Bush's competence. For example:

Reporter: Sen. Kerry, do you think the President is using terror warnings for political purposes?

Kerry: I don't think that even President Bush would be so irresponsible and reckless as to politicize intelligence again. We all saw what happened in Iraq, and I would hope that the President has learned a lesson there.

This emphasizes that Kerry sees Bush as a kid who has been acting like a kid while being the most powerful man in the free world.