The Talent Show says:
Posted by DeLong at October 29, 2004 01:46 PM | TrackBackThe Talent Show: The One That Got Away: This video, on the other hand, is scary as hell:
Arabic TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast a videotape apparently featuring Osama Bin Laden, in which he threatens new attacks on the US. In his opening remarks, the al-Qaeda leader accused President George W Bush of deceiving Americans in the years since the 11 September 2001 attacks. He compared the Bush administration to what he termed corrupt Arab regimes. The development comes as US voters prepare to go to the polls on Tuesday in the presidential election. Bin Laden said he first thought of attacking the US after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He said the attacks on the US would have been less severe if President Bush had been more alert. But he added that the security of the American people depended neither on Mr Bush nor on his challenger, John Kerry, but on US policy.
Jeez, there sure are a lot of religious people declining to endorse anybody this year, huh? Seriously though, this is a pretty clear example of Bush's failed leadership in the war on terror. He let Bin Laden slip away, diverted attention to Iraq, and has done nothing to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world. For this reason, Bin Laden's standing among Arab extremists and moderates has grown considerably in the three years since 9/11. If Bush didn't have such a boner for a war with Iraq, this asshole would be dead right now instead of threatening us from afar like he's Cobra Commander or something.
I'm sticking with the belief that until we make a serious effort to detach ourselves from Israel and taken a more reasoned view of the Palestinian situation, it doesn't, indeed, matter who's president when it comes to our territorial integrity and the view which the Middle East has of us. They're not going to let us go as long as we're one-sided on that issue.
Posted by: PW at October 29, 2004 02:33 PMHow anyone can vote for Bush is beyond me. It is truly amazing to see, how they can spin each colassal failure to some sort of advantage. There are two effects:
1. OBL scares the wits out of people. Being sheep, they flock to Bush to keep them safe.
2. OBL showed up specifically to disrupt the re-coronation of Bush. We don't want what OBL wants, so therefore we have to vote for Bush all the harder.
The facts are clear. 45%+ of LV have been programmed beyond all retrieval.
Posted by: Alan at October 29, 2004 02:35 PMBut there's such an easy rebuttal for Kerry:
"Bush said to me during our debate that getting OBL was still a priority for him. 'Dead or alive,' Bush had boasted. The fact that OBL is alive and free and continuing to make threats at us is proof beyond all doubt that Bush's conduct of the war on terror has failed. It's simple, really. If the President knew what he was doing, OBL would be dead. When I am President, OBL will be dead."
Posted by: Chris at October 29, 2004 03:00 PMSpeaking of Eisenhower (and all that other stuff too) John, at October 29, 2004 02:21 PM:
Kerry (and the Democrats) COULD learn a thing (or three or four OR more) from him....
Just fer instance:
-------------------------------
"...Even though he'd been such a successful military leader, he ran for president against Adlai Stevenson promising to get the United States out of the Korean War, and that's what he did. There wasn't another major military conflict in his two terms in office. He said, 'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.'"
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/docs/2004/10/11/index.html#thursday
-------------------------------
Well, so much for the October surprise.
When I heard about this, my first thought was Tora Bora. Hopefully other Americans had the same reaction.
Posted by: Tom Marney at October 29, 2004 03:30 PMMy first thought was that bin Laden was giving Bush a taunting that had to really sting Bush personally. It's really not the sort of thing that Bush can just ignore and say nothing about. But what can Bush say, other than to repeat that we want bin Laden dead of alive? Which doesn't reflect very well on Bush's failure to do just that.
Posted by: David W. at October 29, 2004 05:37 PMHow much coverage will this get in the USA? This morning the radio talk shows were full of some english-language guy who claimed to be from al qaeda who said we had to vote for kerry. They said the FBI and CIA both promised he was the real thing, and they stressed that when he said to vote for Kerry then any real american will vote for Bush.
Plus they kept pointing out how much the french like Kerry, and they said anybody the french like has to be a bad president. And there was an argument I didn't quite follow that basicly said "Kerry several times trusted republicans to keep their word and play fair, and he got burned every time. If he gets to be president he'll go out and make treaties with foreign governments and he'll get burned every time then too. We need a president who won't make any treaties with anybody ever unless he already has their balls in his fist."
"...threatening us from afar like he's Cobra Commander or something."
I had a similar image in mind. I was kinda disappointed that he didn't say, "You have no chance to survive, make your time," or something along those lines. :D
Posted by: RT at October 30, 2004 06:00 PM