The notion of the warrior-hero who can carry battles single-handedly doesn't really jibe with modern warfare, and it's been a while since we had a military man as president.
And it doesn't take much longer than that to track the way class warfare waxes and wanes in the press and the online discussion groups according to the political climate, or to determine whether conservative or liberal writers are more likely to use the word redneck.
One thing we cannot afford is to give Tom Ridge or anyone this responsibility and then a year from now find out that it didn't work or the FBI or the CIA or others are still engaged in intramural warfare here.