Bombs and Ballots
Plus, would a new speechwriter cure Kerry?
By Mickey Kaus - Slate
Updated Saturday, March 13, 2004, at 1:27 AM PT
Stop the Shrum Karaoke! James Wolcott fave Al Giordano's Big, Left, Outside blog is taking Peggy Noonan's advice and sponsoring a John Kerry Speechwriting Tournament. ... P.S.: I think Giordano's wrong about Pat Buchanan having written "Reagan's best speeches." 1:08 P.M.
Update and correction: Now I understand why Newsweek's revelation about the Bush campaign using "paid actors" to play firefighters in its ads might not have gotten much play: It doesn't seem to be true! That can kill a good brouhaha. The online version of the Newsweek piece now has a concluding note, which says in part:
Editor's Note: In our initial reporting for this story, we were told by a member of the Bush-Cheney campaign's media team that paid actors had been used to portray firefighters in its first election ads, which drew heavily on images from 9/11. After publication, the official told us that he had been mistaken. The Bush-Cheney campaign also provided NEWSWEEK with documents indicating that the people in the ads were authentic volunteer firefighters, not actors.
P.S.: Newsweek's correction "policy" doesn't work. They apparently removed the "paid actor" charge from the site (in violation of their policy). Then they actually restored it--but they don't flag the correction until the bottom of the page, a full screen down from the text in question. ... 6:21 P.M.
Bombs, Ballots: Isn't it quite likely that what just happened in Spain is a preview of what Al Qaeda has planned for the U.S. shortly before our elections? ... Unspeakable political angle: The immediate impact of a series of preelection bombings would be to help Bush, wouldn't it--just as yesterday's bombings may help the conservatives in the impending Spanish election? ... Actually, Bush would be a much clearer beneficiary--Spain's conservative Popular party could be blamed if, as a result of an allying with the U.S. on Iraq, Spain became an Al Qaeda target. That argument wouldn't apply with much force to the U.S., however, since Al Qaeda was attacking the U.S. long before the Iraq war and would have wanted to attack if there'd been no Iraq war.
If you were running John Kerry's campaign, then, wouldn't you be thinking about how you were going to counter the Bush-boosting effect of a last-minute attack? Actually, wouldn't you begin countering that phenomenon well before anything happens--say, in the next few weeks--by pre-defining another act of terrorism in the U.S. as somehow a Bush failure (perhaps by luring Bush into claiming to have 'kept America safe'). . ...
Update: "[D]o you think al Qaeda doesn't know this, or are [you]saying that al Qaeda wants Mr. Bush to be elected president?" asks Busy Busy Busy. It's entirely possible that Al Qaeda wants Bush reelected, in order to "heighten the contradictions" that will supposedly lead to an apocalyptic East-West clash. ... "So the deal is that Bin Laden can tell the candidates apart, but Ralph Nader cannot?" asks reader S.K. ... No comment. ... P.S.: Gaming the U.S. is easy compared with figuring out the situation in Spain. Let's assume that the Basque separatist group, ETA, would like the conservative government (which has been cracking down on ETA) defeated. If the bombings are blamed on ETA, the conservatives will almost certainly win--so it's in ETA's interest to have the public think Al Qaeda did it. That's one reason ETA's denial of responsibility, and even the discovery of a van with detonaters and Islamic tapes, can't necessarily be trusted. ... Bin Laden would have ETA's problem in reverse--if you assume he'd like the conservative party to win for contradiction-heightening purposes. But you can't assume that. It would be a coup for Al Qaeda, after all, if its attack brought down a government in punishment for an alliance with the U.S.. And Bin Laden can achieve that end by taking credit. In Spain, then, both suspect terrorist groups may have an interest in having Al Qaeda fingered as the perpetrator. |
