Bush says bin Laden tape aided re-election

For once I agree with the President. I do think the Osama tape which aired days before the election played an impact on the outcome of an extremely close race, causing last minute anxiety, and ultimately more Bush votes. That said, I think Osama played the US citizens for fools. Osama bin Laden needed Bush's failed Iraq policies to remain in place if he was to be successful in inciting Islam extremists against the US and create an Iraqi civil war. Why would he want Bush replaced? The simple answer is he didn't. He relied on the US electorates great fear of him, and Bush's campaign message which demonized democrats on security issues to ultimately get what he wanted. A year and a half later and Osama is still sending video tapes taunting America, Iraq is descending into chaos, and George Bush wants to stay the course, which means he's out of ideas. I hope the American people who voted for Bush are happy with these results. The bigger question is will they have more moral courage than Bush has demonstrated and admit they made a mistake and vote for Democrats in 2006 to force a change of direction on Iraq policy and American security in general. - IFK Editor

From The Examiner newspaper:

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.

More:

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."