One reason the administration is so obsessed with security for the conventions is that those gatherings attract large concentrations of the American elite in two major cities. But they also may be sufficiently far ahead of the election to allow time for the predictable finger-pointing. Terrorists, some believe, might try to undertake an attack that could be credibly portrayed as a result of the Iraq war, rather than as a 9/11 replay. That could make it Exhibit A in the anti-Bush argument that Iraq has made us more vulnerable.

But at least one senior adviser to Mr. Kerry fears the reverse: that Al Qaeda wants Mr. Bush re-elected because he is ''the best poster they have for further recruitment.''
NYT