CHRIS CHRISTIE’S ATTACK ON LIBERTARIANS — “Tell It To The Widows” — would be more persuasive if the national security apparatus had prevented 9/11, when in fact the only effective response came from the self-organized passengers of Flight 93. The problem is that people who act “without orders, without hierarchy” aren’t simply useless to today’s political class — they’re viewed as a positive threat.

Meanwhile, 12 years later the greatly-expanded domestic spying apparatus couldn’t stop the Tsarnaevs even with help from the Russians. Christie, who purports to have expertise in this area, is going to have to have a better spiel on this if he wants to play at the national level.