Bush says bin Laden tape aided re-election: report

[sabra]

http://www.localnewsleader.com/olberlin/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=150393

Bush says bin Laden tape aided re-election: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said his 2004 re-election victory over Sen. John Kerry was inadvertently aided by Osama bin Laden, who issued a taped diatribe against him the Friday before Americans went to the polls, The Examiner newspaper reported on Tuesday.

...

Bush's comments in the Washington newspaper were excerpts from the new book "Strategery" by Bill Sammon, a long-time White House correspondent.

"What does it mean? Is it going to help? Is it going to hurt?" Bush told Sammon of the bin Laden tapes. "Anything that drops in at the end of a campaign that is not already decided creates all kinds of anxieties, because you're not sure of the effect.

"I thought it was going to help," Bush said. "I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn't want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush."

edit: new link

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Oh, it wasn't inadvertant

It was planned. It is very likely that bin Laden has been dead for several years now.

[fasttense]

2. Most of America doesn't want bush* to be president anymore

does that mean there must be something right about the idiot?

[...of J.Temperance]

5. Most of America didn't want Junior to be *resident at ALL

Most of America chose President Al Gore and Vice-President Joseph Lieberman.

[babylonsister]

3. What a buffoon * is! Now he thinks it helped; on 11/2/04, I recall

pics of him looking really defeated, perhaps before Diebold kicked in.

[...of J.Temperance]

6. What do you expect from an idiot that can't

Ride a bicycle, wave and talk at the same time....or chew a pretzel and watch the television at the same time....or put a coherent sentence together.

[...of J.Temperance]

4. Newsflash!!!! The sky is still blue

And Junior has another D'oh! comment.

[greyl]

7. So he's decided to let him live, eh?

The video actually made bush look quite bad, no matter what bush says.

[thecrow]

8. They can show a picture of binLaden any time they want

and stream his Arabic with an English interpretation over it
and people will believe whatever they say he is saying.
They've got it down to an art now.
Nobody really knows a lot of Arabic anyway, and they are throwing a louder English interpretation on it.
Remember when they said they couldn't stream what he was saying "because it might contain code for the sleeper cells"? That's about when they decided this was the tack to take and use it to their advantage.

[rfkrfk]

23. to what people, do you refer?

the people I know are very sceptical, of the media.

[thecrow]

36. I'm not talking about the media.

Next guess...

[rodeodance]

9. Kerry said the same.

[BootinUp]

10. I think the effect was muted

people were over saturated with all the WOT rhetoric by that point and had already made up their minds. Of course I could be wrong.

[NWHarkness]

12. It wasn't a question of making up minds

It was about GOTV. The Bin Laden tape was releasd to the media in order to ensure that the people most susceptible to Bush's "terraism" rhetoric got out to the polls.

And, didn't it eventually come out that they had sat on the tape since September?

[BootinUp]

20. I don't recall any post election

analysis that showed a surge in turnout for either candidate.

And I don't think the reaction to the video was that predictable either.

[daleo]

26. Well, there was supposed to have been a surge of religious voters

That was the explanation for Kerry leading the exit polls but Bush winning the election. I am not saying that I believe it, or that there was much of an evidence base. Just that the claim was made.

[UpInArms]

24. I had some freak of nature say to me just a couple of weeks ago:

Whatever they (meaning the government) do is alright with me, so long as we're safe and can sleep at night.

I told the dumb b***h that if she was scared, she could hide behind my skirt.

:grr:

[karynnj]

30. It was also because of what it replaced

Kerry had latched onto the fact that the military didn't secure tha ammo dumps where materials were under IAEA lock and key before the inspectors were thrown out. Kerry's comment that this was the material that was being used to kill our "kids" was resonating. At first, the Republicans had countered that they were raided immediately - so it was naive to expect it could have been secured. A few days before the tape came out, a MN station found tape filmed by their embedded reporter a month after the fall of Baghdad showing the materials intact at one of the biggest dumps.

Kerry was making head way on this. Even the cable people were marvelling that it looked like Kerry was pulling it off. (There was a real note of surprise that he was and a crtain amount of respect.)

[rodeodance]

11. Yes, Bush-obl does like you--as you and your cabal stir up more hated

in the Arab world----he wants you in your presidental seat--you are very helpful.

...."I thought it was going to help," Bush said. "I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn't want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush."

[sabra]

13. can it be any more obvious why UBL has never been "captured"

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. "Don't throw me in the briar patch"

"I thought it was going to help," Bush said. "I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn't want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush."

a) there's that third-person-speak again.
b) Bush thinks that he's the only one who realizes this? Everyone who thinks that Bin Laden's diatribe against Bush wasn't intended for exactly the purpose it served should raise their hand.

People are such tools.

[Rose Siding]

22. A concept that our Puppet on a String believes we are too simple to grasp

-But *this* is what bush is asking his listener to believe: That Bin Laden is WAY too honest and trustworthy to psychologically manipulate the public in order to achieve his ends.

[lavenderdiva]

15. '...a campaign that is not already DECIDED....'

'Anything that drops in at the end of a campaign that is not already decided creates all kinds of anxieties, because you're not sure of the effect.'

NOT ALREADY DECIDED! Hmmmmm... Liar.

[area51]

16. Bush & bin Laden = best buds.

Bush admits bin Laden helped get him elected ... bin Laden is a terrorist ... Bush has business dealings w/a terrorist.

Well, I guess it's off to Gitmo for Bush. :evilgrin:

[Julius Civitatus]

17. How convenient.....

If they wanted people to make all sorts of conspiracy theories, I can not imagine them coming up with better material.

Really

:tinfoilhat:

[WinkyDink]

18. Yeah, Moran-in-Chief's focus WOULD be on himself and not America.

Never mind what O b-L actually said.

[Child_Of_Isis]

19. The story is gone???? eom.

[sabra]

21. that was weird, I updated with a different link to the same story...

[daleo]

25. Therefore, expect more Bin Laden on the eve of elections

Maybe even more than a tape - i.e. an incident.

[NVMojo]

27. I remember that. The arrogance of this pr spin President!

[kiraboo]

28. Bin Laden knew the tape would help Bush.

And that's why it showed up when it did. I thought this at the time and I still believe it now. Anybody other than the shrub would have caught Bin Laden by now. Why wouldn't he help keep that idiot in office?

[kurth]

31. And for that Bin Laden should be captured, then forced to watch

every speech ever made by his friend George W. Bush, then sent to a pig farm for further torture by U.S. Army specialists...

[kiraboo]

33. Don't you think that's a little harsh?

Having to watch Bush speak, I mean?

[CJCRANE]

29. Bush says dieBold aided re-election: report

would be even more truthful.

[Redstone]

32. "I thought it was going to help," Bush said. No shit, Sherlock. That's why

you had it released, isn't it?

And you think you had us fooled? We're not as stupid as you are.

Redstone

[corporatemedia]

34. I love the CNN Hdln: "Bush: Bin Laden helped me....."

...beat Kerry"

[agincourt]

35. They don't even try to hide,

The RW conservative-Al Quaida terrorist connection anymore. I'm suprised he didn't do an arm fart and yell out "suckers!".