Not Even An Issue?

Atrios and a bunch of other far-out Lefty bloggers accuse John Kerry of “the Willie Horton campaign tactic of linking Howard Dean to Osama Bin Laden” for an ad (follow the link) that does nothing but show bin Laden’s picture while (1) stating that America has evil enemies who plot against it (incontestibly true, no?) and (2) questioning Dean’s inexperience in foreign affairs (a legitimate issue in any campaign, if a sometimes overstated one).
This is batty. Nothing in the ad accuses Dean of being soft on Al Qaeda, or even mentions any of Dean’s policies. This is awfully tame stuff, in fact. By arguing that you shouldn’t be able to raise the issue of whether a presidential candidate is equipped to deal with international terrorists like bin Laden, isn’t Atrios effectively arguing for taking the issue of terrorism off the table entirely? Leaving aside the tactical insanity here — the prison furlough issue worked precisely because the Democrats had spent years arguing that crime was a subject beneath discussion — how can anyone believe that a candidate’s ability to deal with the leading national security issue of the day shouldn’t be an issue?
Or are Atrios and friends just saying that you can say that argument, but you can’t dramatize it by referring directly to bin Laden?