Thomas Friedman, back from the wilderness:

[S]ince 9/11, we’ve become “The United States of Fighting Terrorism.” Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates, but there’s no rule against saying who will not get my vote: I will not vote for any candidate running on 9/11. We don’t need another president of 9/11. We need a president for 9/12. I will only vote for the 9/12 candidate.

What does that mean? This: 9/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But our reaction to 9/11 — mine included — has knocked America completely out of balance, and it is time to get things right again.

It is not that I thought we had new enemies that day and now I don’t. Yes, in the wake of 9/11, we need new precautions, new barriers. But we also need our old habits and sense of openness. For me, the candidate of 9/12 is the one who will not only understand who our enemies are, but who we are.

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You may think Guantánamo Bay is a prison camp in Cuba for Al Qaeda terrorists. A lot of the world thinks it’s a place we send visitors who don’t give the right answers at immigration. I will not vote for any candidate who is not committed to dismantling Guantánamo Bay and replacing it with a free field hospital for poor Cubans. Guantánamo Bay is the anti-Statue of Liberty.

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I’d love to see us salvage something decent in Iraq that might help tilt the Middle East onto a more progressive pathway. That was and is necessary to improve our security. But sometimes the necessary is impossible — and we just can’t keep chasing that rainbow this way.

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We can’t afford to keep being this stupid! We have got to get our groove back. We need a president who will unite us around a common purpose, not a common enemy. Al Qaeda is about 9/11. We are about 9/12, we are about the Fourth of July — which is why I hope that anyone who runs on the 9/11 platform gets trounced.

9/11 was a massive tragedy, one of the worst in American history.  Unfortunately, while most of us saw a mix of death and destruction and heroism that day, some people saw a political opportunity.

Ever since, a certain type of craven opportunist has been using 9/11 to to forward their narrow interests. They have used it as a bludgeon to attack their political opponents.  And since they’ve wrapped their repugnant ideology in the shroud of 9/11 (and preventing another 9/11), they have been treated as immune from criticism.

I’m glad to see Friedman has given up his Iraq cheerleading for a modicum of reality.  No politician running for any office  anywhere should be allowed to exploit 9/11.  Nobody owns 9/11; it was a massive national tragedy. The only people who can lay any claim to that day are those who died and their families.

The 9/11 exploiters have had too much influence in our polity for far too long.  It’s time for us to elect smart, practical leaders who understand that the world did not stop in September, 2001–the world has been moving on, and we need someone who can see beyond that clear, cool, horrible Tuesday morning.  As Friedman said, we don’t need a 9/11 President; we need a 9/12 President, a 9/13 President–a President who can deal with the world today, not the world six years ago, a world that no longer exists.

America deserves nothing less.