News that al-Qaida might be working to coordinate attacks to coincide with our election year activities is certainly troubling &045;&045; but not surprising, considering the perceived &uot;success&uot; terrorists had at disrupting politics in Spain earlier this year with a train bombing.

That attack could have helped influence the elections there, which led to Spain’s withdrawing its troops from Iraq.

But while U.S. officials hope to raise the awareness level of a possible attack, they have not yet raised the threat level, even as the political conventions are fast approaching.

Late Thursday, some officials were saying the threats are being coordinated by Osama bin Laden — something else that should not surprise us.

As always, we must remain vigilant in the face of such threats.

In our reality since Sept. 11, this is nothing new.

We should stay on guard &045;&045; but we should not let this threat affect our daily lives.

Our law enforcement and homeland security officials are working hard to thrwart any attack.

And most certainly we should not let it affect our political process.

Ironically, as the Bush administration announced these new threats, some Democrats grumbled about the timing — just two days after John Kerry announced his running mate John Edwards and began to dominate the news cycle for perhaps the first time in his campaign.

While it is frustrating to see such partisanship entering the homeland security arena, it assures us of one thing: terrorist threats are not disrupting the normal course of politics in America.