Dowd: Will Osama Help W.?

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/opinion/31dowd.html?hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

Some people thought the October surprise would be the president producing Osama.

Instead, it was Osama producing yet another video taunting the president and lecturing America.

After bin Laden's pre-election commentary from his anchor desk at a secure, undisclosed location, many TV chatterers and Republicans postulated that the evildoer's campaign intrusion would help the president.

<snip>

The Bushies' campaign pitch follows their usual backward logic: Because we have failed to make you safe, you should re-elect us to make you safer. Because we haven't caught Osama in three years, you need us to catch Osama in the next four years. Because we didn't bother to secure explosives in Iraq, you can count on us to make sure those explosives aren't used against you.

You'd think that seeing Osama looking fit as a fiddle and ready for hate would spark anger at the Bush administration's cynical diversion of the war on Al Qaeda to the war on Saddam. It's absurd that we're mired in Iraq - an invasion the demented vice president praised on Friday for its "brilliance" - while the 9/11 mastermind nonchalantly pops up anytime he wants. For some, it seemed cartoonish, with Osama as Road Runner beeping by Wile E. Bush as Dick Cheney and Rummy run the Acme/Halliburton explosives company - now under F.B.I. investigation for its no-bid contracts on anvils, axle grease (guaranteed slippery) and dehydrated boulders (just add water) .

[democrat in Tallahassee]

1. SHE MAKES SENSE!!!! WOW

[madaboutharry]

2. The headline writer really

blew it.

[realFedUp]

3. Mo got this one right...eom

[newsfox]

4. Counting on Mr. NotSafe to safeguard us.

I must admit, my first fear was that people would believe in Bush to safeguard us too after the latest Osama tape.

Not that I understand the thinking at all. I don't. Bush was president before 911, he was president on 911 and he's been president since 911.

I also was concerned about the poll internals; that more people trusted Bush to guard us against what he has already failed to guard us against.

I was listening to C-Span this morning and heard one older lady talking about how "that man is on my TV again," meaning Osama. "If that man is still on my TV 3 years after 911 how can Bush be doing a good job on terror?"

This one caller and the fact that the polls are tightening if anything has heartened me somewhat. That and the fact that Osama might have appeared too late in the campaign to add insanity into the mix. It seems that most have their minds made up already.

At any rate, I'm glad that at least some others are thinking the way I am. Bush is a failure on so many fronts. He'll be a few months from being gone on Tuesday.