Has Bill Clinton checkmated a Rove 'Terra' scare electoral campaign?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

IMO Bill Clinton's brilliant interview on Fox News Sunday has made it more difficult for Dubya and his spokesmen to keep getting a "pass" on 'Terra'. Chris Wallace's first off-base question was about the "message" Clinton sent to bin Laden by pulling out of Somalia in the early 90s. IMO that was really a "reach". Come on!

Why would anybody ask that except to continue the "Clinton's fault" Scaife campaign that began with this month's "Path to 9-11" miniseries on ABC? Clinton responded to Wallace with a full accounting of his personal "obsession" with "killing" OBL, and Wallace had no effective follow-up questions.

IMO, the most significant consequence of Sunday's set-to on Fox is Clinton's challenge to journalists to ask the same kinds of questions of "the other side." Wallace has given a very high profile to what White Houses FAILED to do about international terror threats to citizens of the US. IIRC, no journalist has ever dared to ask Bush or his top officials about what they DID NOT DO to keep the country safe.

How well would a Rove "Terra' fear campaign play if journalists started asking Dubya, Cheney, and Condi the same kinds of questions Wallace asked Clinton? Of course, since 9-11 happened on their watch, and they have tamed the media ever since, they are much more vulnerable to a sudden outbreak of more "fairness and balance":

1. The CIA and FBI did not find OBL responsible for the Cole bombing until after the 2000 election. That's why Bill Clinton did not implement his plans to invade Afghanistan, overturn the Taliban, and capture OBL. Why didn't the new Bush administration respond to the bombing of the USS Cole? What message did that failure send to Osama bin Laden?

2. Richard Clarke had been a WH antiterrorism expert for the three Presidents who preceded Dubya. Why was he demoted in 2001? And how were Clarke's superiors held accountable for apparently relaxing down America's longstanding safeguards against terrorism?

3. How many meetings did Dubya, Cheney, or Condi hold on antiterror strategy from Inauguration Day to September 10 2001?

... And so on, and so on.

What do you think?

(1) Has Bill Clinton brilliantly pre-empted another Rove pre-election "Terra" scare campaign?

(2) What questions would you now ask Dubya, Cheney, and Condi to hold them accountable for what they failed to do before 9/11?