Al-J often publishes stuff critical of Arab gov’ts so I think it’s unlikely thats what was edited. Also note they left in:
The boring (but most likely IMHO) possibility is that they left out the parts that specifically advocated violent acts against the US or other gov’ts. About half the tape is missing though, and it seems wierd that in a tape aimed at the American people he’d spend half the time talking to muslims about what to blow up.
The sexy conspiracy theory possibility is that Al-Jazeera is trying to influence the election by only releasing those parts of the tape critical of Bush.
Half had the opportunity to hear it, but who knows how many actually did.
I don’t think this is going to show up in any poll except the one on Tuesday. It’s too new a news story, and we all know about the problems with weekend polls, let alone a Halloween weekend poll.
Do you understand why Bush polls considerablly better than Kerry when people are asked who would be better at fighting terrorism? They already know, and Kerry keeps reminding us, that ObL is still at large. Frankly, I don’t fully understand that, but I expect it’s because fear makes people less inclined to make a change. With the tape coming out so close to the election, it will have more of an emotional response rather than a reasoned one.
As you’ve reminded us before, you are a lot smarter than the average voter. You’re own reaction is not a good gauge.
Well, I think it is more than that…It is the failure to distinguish between fighting a smart war on terrorism and just “being tough” which apparently means going off on tangents and attacking countries that have very little to do with terrorists (especially the ones that actually attacked us). Unfortunately, some people confuse this toughness with effectiveness. [And, they fail to realize what a boon the last 18 months has likely been for Al Qaeda…Honestly, I am not sure that they could have wished for anything more.]
Good point. I don’t completely agree that Iraq is a good example of that, since it cuts both ways for Bush, but I do think people feel that Bush will more likely “do something” than Kerry will, without really thinking thru whether that “something” is the right thing or not.
and apparently smarter than me… whooshed again Diogenes whatsup…
I’ll tell ya how it’s a boost for Bush. The tape is gonna get some people to get their heads outta their asses and make a decision. Cause believe or not there’s still a lot of folks who don’t know who they’re going to vote for yet. Some will just flip a coin when they get to the booth.
But these voters who will actually make up their minds according to this tape are gonna fall into the emotional…Bush is a fighter and Osama just threatened us again.
then there’s the more logical…Bush couldn’t catch him so let Kerry try.
Out of these two, who is more apt to be influenced by the mere existence of this tape, the logical group or the emotional group?
The emotional group is going to outnumber the logical group when it comes to this tape. That’s a plus for Bush. It also excludes any twist that Rove is gonna put on it.
I’d be skeptical if that was just a statistical fluctuation…Or attributable to other things like the ongoing missing explosives scandal (and particularly the footage from the Minnesota news crew confirming that some of the IAEA sealed explosives were still at the site on April 18.
Oh well, if we are going for emotional arguments how is this:
The same guy that Bush promised to bring “dead or alive” is taunting him for blowing up the Saddams, who had nothing to do with 9/11. And the Bush apologists, many whom were saying recently that getting Osama’s head in a platter was going to seal the election for bush, are now saying that finding Osama alive and tounting the administration… does help the administration get elected. :smack:
Sorry, but this rotten spin that the right is trying to put to this tape of Osama adds to the reason why the left is angry with them and Bush, and since Nader is not much a factor now, I see more on the left getting out of their butts and voting for Kerry.
I still don’t see how anyone who gives the matter any thought at all can think that this tape is a reason to vote for Bush. Are they thinking that now Buish WILL get OBL? What;s he going to do now that he hasn’t been doing for the last three years and if he has the ability to do something new then why hasn’t he done it already?
and apparently smarter than me… whooshed again