Peggy Noonan.

“We received a reminder of the gravity of the situation this week, with the bipartisan congressional report saying the odds are high the world will see a biological or nuclear terror attack in the next five years. It said, “America’s margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,” and “the risk that radical Islamists—al Qaeda or Taliban—may gain access to nuclear material is real.”

Commission co-chairman Bob Graham, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and an adviser to Mr. Obama’s transition team, was sober in a Q&A with Newsweek. He said he was most surprised at the risk of biological weapons because of “the ubiquitous nature of pathogens”—anthrax, or a resurrected infectious agent such as the one that produced the 1918 influenza epidemic, which has been re-created in the laboratory.

The report hasn’t received the attention it deserves, nor have its recommendations. Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat, accused the commission of playing the “fear card” and trying to imitate the Bush administration in alarmism and bellicosity. Mr. Graham, a Florida Democrat and former senator, would have none of it. “Our adversaries are gaining greater capabilities,” he said.

Why does Congress prepare such reports? To inform, and to win support for new plans. To show they are doing something. And to be able to say, in the event of calamity—forgive my cynicism—that they warned us. This hasn’t been the first such report. It won’t be the last. But it comes at a key moment for Mr. Obama, because it gives him a certain amount of cover to be serious about what needs to be done. What’s at stake for him is two words. When Republicans say, in coming years, “At least Bush kept us safe,” Democrats will not want tacked onto the end of that sentence, “unlike Obama.”

This isn’t to say that I hope Obama doesn’t have the same success, for all our sakes I sincerely hope he does. But remember it was the tools that the Bush administration used – that the left so vehemently opposed – that did the job, along with all the work and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.

During the campaign Barack Obama promised to do away with many of those tools and put in their place tools that didn’t work in the days leading up to 9/11.

Should Barack Obama fail to fix the economy, he will be able to pin it on Bush. The same with many other domestic situations. But the standard set by Bush was a safer USA after 9/11, and unless one is an intellectual moron – or a liberal – there is absolutely no argument about that.

Like it or not, believe it or not whether or not this country continues to avoid attack is purely and soley in the hands of Barack Obama.

Again for all our sakes lets hope he doesn’t screw it up.