One other thought on the new Osama tape and one "by the way"…
We've heard a lot of low, contrived attacks during this election but I don't think any are as desperate and as lacking in reality as, "The terrorists want to see [name of candidate] to win." Who the hell knows who they would like to see win the presidency? Or even if they care? One would tend to think that where the rulers of America are viewed as the spawns of Satan, the characterization applies to anyone — Bush or Kerry — who is not prepared to utterly reverse decades of U.S. policy.
For that matter, even if video analysis of the tape showed that Osama was wearing a Bush-Cheney button or a Kerry-Edwards lapel pin, what would that mean? He could be hoping for the election of a given ticket because he thinks that administration is more likely to pull U.S troops out of the lands he holds sacred. Or he could be rooting for those candidates because he thinks they're more likely to do something so egregiously destructive that it will further unite the Arab world against us. He could even come out for the candidate he likes less because he thinks that will drive American voters to the other guy. My guess is he doesn't care who's in the White House any more than we care who Al Qaeda names Employee of the Month.
I mean, if he cared, he could have said something that really sank one guy or the other…like, "I hope you Americans will vote for my old business partner, Dick Cheney — oh, and Dick, thank the Halliburton boys for that new, secret shipment of weapons." Or "I hope you Americans will vote for John Kerry because he has secretly assured me that he will arrange for flying lessons for my men if we'll promise to destroy the Del Monte ketchup factory!"
The issues in this election are pretty clear. It's amazing how many people are trying to drag in ambiguous, arguable points like which candidate the terrorists would prefer.
Here's the by-the way: By the way, the first TV coverage I saw of the Osama tape happened to be a CBS News Special Report anchored by Dan Rather. I suppose all the initial reports said something about how the footage had not been verified so it was possible it was not Bin Laden or was not what it was purported to be. But Rather must have said that twenty times in about ten minutes. Every sentence included a disclaimer that the tape had not been verified, that they were not saying that the man in the tape was definitely Osama, etc. Guess someone at CBS said to someone else, "Dan, for God's sake. We got hung out to dry over some bogus letters…try not to totally humiliate us if this tape turns out to be phony."