ASSAULT AND BLOOMBATTERY

APPARENTLY THE MAYOR got a little excited—or jealous, or both—watching his fellow New York pols draw sustained applause during the RNC as they tried to out-hawk each other. So over the weekend Bloomberg dipped a toe into foreign-policy waters, rhetorically asking an audience if there was any other way to combat terrorism besides going after them. "All we have to do is look at Europe in the late 30s to know that appeasement doesn't work," said the mayor, sounding about 10,000 leagues out of his depth.

Michael Bloomberg is not a tough man. He's not a historian. He's not a foreign affairs strategist. He's a businessman best suited to giving welcoming remarks and cutting ribbons at Snapple ceremonies. But the real reason he should refrain from Bush administration talking points is that his political instincts are better than that. It's unlikely that the real Bloomberg thinks the Iraq war was a good idea, or that the Bush administration has made New York City safer. The mayor sounded much more convincing last week denouncing Bush's refusal to renew the federal assault weapons ban. If the mayor wants to talk about the war on terror, let him hammer home the fact that an al Qaeda training manual recovered in Afghanistan advised terrorists that it is easy to obtain machine guns in the United States, and offered instructions on how to use assault weapons. If he absolutely must wax Churchillian about preemptive war, let him do it at home, in front of the mirror.