This column is adapted from the Best of the Web, which is issued daily at OpinionJournal.com. (C)2004 Dow Jones Company Inc.

MEET US ON THE WEB

Tomorrow we’ll be participating in an online seminar sponsored by the Tom Peters Co. on the topic of “Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House.” (Sneak preview: We’ll mention that you can buy it from the OpinionJournal bookstore.) The hour-long presentation runs from noon to 1 p.m. EDT. As we understand it, you’ll log in to see the PowerPoint slides, and you’ll phone in to hear the audio. It’s free, and you can register and find more information here.

KERRY’S IDENTITY CRISIS

Remember when John Kerry went to the prom and got doused with pig’s blood? Oh wait, sorry, that wasn’t Kerry; it was Carrie, Sissy Spacek’s character in the eponymous 1976 film. We regret the error.

The Kerry campaign seems to have made a similar mistake. Bloggers Eugene Volokh and Robert Tagorda note that campaign press releases from Jan. 29 and March 24 describe Kerry as a former vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But although Kerry was a member of the committee until 2000, Volokh and Tagorda show that he almost certainly never served as vice chairman.

A fellow senator with a similar name did, however. The biography of Bob Kerrey, now president of New York’s New School University, says that he was the commmittee’s vice chairman between 1995 and 1999. Kerrey also, by the way, served in Vietnam.

THE DANGERS OF NORMALCY

Time magazine reports on a March 2004 “gathering of terrorism’s elite” in the Pakistani province of Waziristan:

Although some summit participants have been arrested, others are still at large and are considered very dangerous. At least two are believed to have done some of the surveillance of targets in New York City and elsewhere that authorities found out about last month. Some U.S. officials fear that the meeting may have been a pivotal planning session, much the way a 2000 meeting in Kuala Lumpur was for the 9/11 attacks. “This was a meeting of a bunch of cold-blooded killers who are very skilled at what they do and have an intense desire to inflict an awful lot of pain and suffering on America,” says an official familiar with the summit. A senior counterterrorism official said analysts are scrutinizing the recent pattern of enemy activity against timelines of previous attacks. This, he said, has contributed to the worry that at least some members of a strike team are already in the U.S.

It’s been almost three years since terrorists last succeeded in striking on American soil, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying. Voters would do well in November to consider how seriously each candidate takes the terrorist threat. Here’s an excerpt from John Kerry’s convention speech that makes us uneasy: My fellow Americans, this is the most important election of our lifetime. The stakes are high. We are a nation at war-a global war on terror against an enemy unlike any we have ever known before. And here at home, wages are falling, health care costs are rising, and our great middle class is shrinking. People are working weekends; they’re working two jobs, three jobs, and they’re still not getting ahead. We’re told that outsourcing jobs is good for America. We’re told that new jobs that pay $9,000 less than the jobs that have been lost is the best we can do. They say this is the best economy we’ve ever had. And they say that anyone who thinks otherwise is a pessimist. Well, here is our answer: There is nothing more pessimistic than saying America can’t do better. So there’s a pro forma mention of the war before Kerry jumps into what he really wants to talk about, namely “outsourcing,” the latest left-populist economic fad and the sort of thing politicians could be excused for dwelling on back before Sept. 11.

Last month, before taking leave to work on the Bush campaign, Peggy Noonan wrote that she feared John Kerry would win the presidency through a Hardingesque appeal to “normalcy.” Mickey Kaus subsequently (albeit grudgingly) endorsed Kerry on precisely these grounds. Normalcy is certainly appealing, but “normalcy” now would mean a return to the 1990s, when al Qaeda was plotting Sept. 11 and carrying out various smaller attacks. Real peace, and normalcy, will come only through victory.

WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT WITNESSES?

“Witness: Alleged 9/11 Helper Was Anti-U.S.”-headline, Associated Press, Aug. 17

LAST NAME FIRST

“Torpedo Sinks Phelps’ Shot at Spitz Mark” – headline, Press Associated, Aug. 16

REPORTS OF MY BIRTH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED

This “clarification” ran in the Houston Chronicle Saturday: “Today’s Star section includes Julia Child in the birthdays list on page G3. That section was printed before news of her death was reported Friday morning.”