Bush admits bin Laden helped him beat Kerry

On CNN website:

http://www.cnn.com/...

"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."

Wow, that's disingenuous.  Actually, bin Laden WANTED Bush to win.  Bin Laden knows that with Bush in there and the Iraq mess continuing, recruiting will continue to go very nicely for al-Qaida.

That said, I admit that I wondered a lot during the pre-election runup which way that one would fall.  I do feel that bin Laden likes having Bush around.  But did American voters react to that tape by being more or less likely to vote for Bush?  I think it made them more likely, and I think bin Laden - or his handlers who are probably smarter than he is - knew that would happen.

•  and didn't Kerry blame OBL for his loss?

  by PhillyGal on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:46:14 AM PDT

  •  Partially

    by diplomatic on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:47:25 AM PDT

  •  yeah; OBL's tape, of course

    "US Democratic Senator John Kerry says a video message from Osama Bin Laden sealed his defeat in a presidential race dominated by the 9/11 attacks.

    Mr Kerry told NBC TV his opinion poll lead over President George W Bush fell away after the tape was broadcast.

    He said national security was the decisive issue in the November 2004 poll, won eventually by President Bush.

    Osama Bin Laden's video, shown days before the vote, urged Americans to back neither Mr Bush nor Mr Kerry.

    "Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands," said the al-Qaeda figurehead, claiming that the best way for the US to avoid fresh attacks was to call off its "war on terror".  BBC link

    by PhillyGal on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:49:05 AM PDT

•  And bin laden points and laughs at Bush

  for being such a dumbass for actually beliving him.

  by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:47:43 AM PDT

  •  Yes

    Laughs and points at Bush... and at Americans.

    by Montague on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:53:22 AM PDT

•  Disgusting

  Bush and Bin Laden are two peas in a pod. Manipulate the press to skew public opinion towards your goal, kill thousands of people in the name of your "God", watch as your actions move the world to a dangerous place...and just keep smiling for the cameras.

  by MikeBaseball on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:48:01 AM PDT

  •  Neither succeeds without the other.

    It's that simple.

    by Loquatrix on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:52:23 AM PDT

•  They have added a poll

  I'm thinking I'm going to go vote.  Also I believe Bush made some public statements about this at the time I wonder if they differ from this version at all.

  by Mikecan1978 on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:50:43 AM PDT

•  convoluted

  So if someone aids and abets our enemy, that makes them a traitor.

  What does it make someone if our enemy aids and abets them?

  That said, I think ObL's tape did help Bush. While it reminded many of us of Bush's failure to do anything right, it reminded lots of other people to think "Save me from the bad man, daddy!"

  by pi1304 on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:50:44 AM PDT

•  It reminded me...

  ...that Bush hasn't caught Bin Laden.

  I'm so tired of American Idiots. This UAE port deal is just one more thing - if it goes through people have nobody but themselves to blame. Our government is folly.

  by joejoejoe on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:52:30 AM PDT

  •  Exactly

    OBL remains at large.

    Which reminds me [insert head scratching here] - does Georgie care or not care today about OBL?

    by Montague on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:56:04 AM PDT

•  Oh my god. What a MOR-ON!!!!!!

  by Naranjadia on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:58:29 AM PDT

•  How about.....

  somebody track on a gant chart each of BushCo's fine diplomatic plays versus incidents of violence and opinion polls of our Middle East policy by our Middle East inhabitants?

  by Habanero on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 09:59:21 AM PDT

•  actually

  "That said, I admit that I wondered a lot during the pre-election runup which way that one would fall.  I do feel that bin Laden likes having Bush around."

  I think more accurately: Bush likes having bin Laden around.

  by AngryFinn on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:01:23 AM PDT

  •  Good point

    And I agree.

    by Montague on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:56:25 AM PDT

•  Proof

  No administration in US history has played "Wag the Dog" as well as President Rove...er, Bush.  

  Is anyone buying that the administration didn't fully control of the timing of the tape's release?

  by Rippe on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:06:24 AM PDT

•  For once Bush Admits . . .

  
   . . . what we already knew:  his big "shout out" to Osama bin Laden!

   Now if he'll only admit that he fiddle-farted around in July-Sept 11, 2001, instead of pulling out all the stops to thwart the criminal savagery of 9.11, then we'd be getting somewhere.

   BenGoshi
  __________________

  by BenGoshi on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:15:09 AM PDT

•  so

  Osama Bin Laden is absolutely trustworthy in his broadcasts and would never use deception?

  Bush trusts Osama.

  by voltayre on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:17:40 AM PDT

•  I find this admission very strange...

  of course we all know this to be true, but it seems like the kind of thing Bush should never admit to. Why not just send Bin Laden a thank you note for helping keep him in power? Or maybe just fail to catch him so you always have an easy boogey-man out there in case your approval rating sinks to 34%?

  by rebop on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:17:45 AM PDT

•  Kerry was Too Chicken to Respond

  Sitting in Columbus, Ohio in the pre-election runup, I was both appalled and thrilled when bin Laden showed up to comment on the election. I was appalled because we/Bush still hadn't run that SOB bin Laden into the ground for the horrors he orchestrated, but I was thrilled because it was so obvious that Kerry could use this to demonstrate just how little Bush had done for national security and how accurate he was to point out that Bush still hadn't captured bin Laden. There even was a canned ad by Media Fund, a 527 group which ran ads supporting Kerry, that had produced a campaign best 8-point swing toward Kerry's candidacy with an ad that showed Bush holding hands with an unnamed Arab.

  http://www.nytimes.com/...

  So, of course, Kerry responded to bin Laden's appearance by sitting on his $15 million war chest and doing nothing different the last five days of the election. What a leader. What a strategist. What a loser.

  by Hoomai29 on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:31:01 AM PDT

  •  asdf

    I was appalled because we/Bush still hadn't run that SOB bin Laden into the ground for the horrors he orchestrated, but I was thrilled because it was so obvious that Kerry could use this to demonstrate just how little Bush had done for national security and how accurate he was to point out that Bush still hadn't captured bin Laden.

    At the time I felt the same way.  I wasn't sure which way it would fall but I felt it should have been pounced on by Kerry.  And yet still he was playing the "let's be nice" game.  He failed to take to heart Dean's attitude, which was to be bold and take a position and let the cards fall where they may.  Because that way, Kerry would have had a chance.  IMO

    by Montague on Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 10:59:38 AM PDT