JULIAN SANCHEZ IS RELUCTANTLY DEFENDING DICK CHENEY, who he says has been widely misquoted:

As I read this, he’s not saying the danger is that if we elect Kerry, then the danger is that we’ll be attacked. He’s saying that if we elect Kerry and we’re attacked, then the danger is that we’ll treat it as a criminal act rather than an act of war. And in context, it’s actually pretty transparent that this is what Cheney intended. So transparent once you look at the full transcript, in fact, that I wonder whether some of the misreading isn’t deliberate, either as a partisan tactic or an attempt to generate a news story.

Surely not. Interesting discussion in the comments. Meanwhile, Nick Gillespie says that Kerry has actually been consistent on nation-building. He takes off points for speaking style, though.

UPDATE: While Julian Sanchez defends Cheney, Rick Brookhiser at NRO is criticizing him. . . . Hey, where did Spock get that beard?