Failure is success
Just in time for the election, it’s the announcement that Osama bin Laden has been captured!!!
Oh, wait, actually it’s just another videotape with Osama ranting about things. Aren’t you scared now?
As the always cutting Fafblog posts:
Some of you may be saying, “Ah, but the fact that bin Laden is still alive is proof of the Bush administration’s failure in the war on terror – proof that we shouldn’t vote for him!” The Medium Lobster would laugh at your naivete – if this situation weren’t so deadly serious. For only George W. Bush has the pure, hard determination to stand up to terror. And only George W. Bush has the unswerving, unfailing incompetence to allow terror to spread so he can continue to stand up to it.
Listen to the words of the mass murderer, and re-elect the man who let him go. It’s your duty. It’s your destiny. Now and forever.
There’s a good analysis of the situation over on Daily Kos too:
Now, why that helps Bush is beyond me. For months, we saw the offense-is-defense idea pushed by every pundit you can think of who had access to RNC talking points that any discussion of Iraq, no matter how bad, was good for Bush. Whatever bad things surfaced that pointed out how screwed up Iraq was, it was good for Bush. Everything he did wrong was great publicity for him. Like the explosives story all this week. Like Halliburton investigations. Right.
I saw OBL today and I thought, hmmm. Looks in good health. Had access to video equipment. Arms work. Looks clean. So where is he? Why hasn’t Bush found him? Why isn’t Bush talking about him?
Kerry did the right thing, and so did Bush today. Both made their statements, neither was partisan, and it was over. George Stephanopolous suggested on ABC World News (hardly friendly Kerry country) that as far as the election went, it was likely a wash. I agree. Could have been a disaster if either one was partisan about it. Neither guy was.
For those who have made up their minds, no change. For those who haven’t, there are plenty of folks who want to know why he was free to make that video. While we’re tied up in Iraq, he’s out doing the propaganda thing. And that’s not going to sit well by Tuesday.
And finally, you can read some great thoughts on the matter from Josh Marshall here.
If the Kerry campaign falls for this it would be the height of foolishness. In itself the bin Laden video is not a matter of controversy. What the president’s campaign is trying to do is either goad the Kerry campaign into three days of passivity in the run-up to the election or fuss up a debate about the supposed outrageousness of Kerry’s faulting the president for allowing bin Laden to remain at large. The Kerry folks should not play into that trap. The answer is to keep to the game-plan and remain on the offensive.
[second link via Sisyphus Shrugged]
