The conservative media have followed the script on attacking President Obama's anti-terror policies since the attempted Christmas Day bombing -- from Politico basically providing stenography for Dick Cheney's claim that Obama's policies make us “less safe” to media claiming that the president isn't taking the terrorist threat seriously. This week, Human Events editor Jed Babbin wrote that with the first anniversary of Obama's inauguration at hand, it was time to ask whether his policies have made the country safer. Babbin declared: “By every objective measure -- what we know about Islamic terrorism, its intentions and capabilities -- the answer is no. We are far less safe now than we were then.”

All this is a weak attempt to reinforce the stereotype that, despite the Bush administration's failures at stopping domestic terrorism, Republicans are “good” at national security.

But the American people aren't buying it. In the past week, three separate polls have shown that more Americans approve of Obama's handling of terrorism than disapprove.

First came the January 11 CNN poll that found that 65 percent of those polled had a great deal or moderate amount of confidence in the Obama administration to protect America from terrorism and that 57 percent approved of his response to the Christmas Day terror attempt.

Also on January 11, CBS released a poll showing that 52 percent of those surveyed approved of Obama's handling of terrorism; and 71 percent had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in the government's ability to protect them from a terrorist attack. The funny thing about that number is that it's an increase from 66 percent in July 2007 under the Bush administration.

Then today, Quinnipiac found that 48 percent approve of Obama's handling of terrorism (44 percent disapprove). The poll also found, perhaps most damning for conservatives' claims that Obama is endangering the country by dismantling Bush anti-terror policies, 62 percent feel safer or just as safe under Obama as they did under Bush.