DonBoy

Let me say publicly that DonBoy’s answer exudes a combination of intuitive genius and confidence that make me think DonBoy is going to do big things in his life. -- Steven D. Levitt (Freakonomics blog)

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Who Would Al Qaida Rather Have As President? (Part Umpty-Third)

Sam Rosenfeld takes another run at this in TAP. Yes, I shouldn't mock, since I last felt compelled to address it about 6 weeks ago; but a couple of comparisons have come to mind since then, so...

My feeling is (still) that "AQ considers GWB their best recruiter" is not the dominating thought. I think at this level of conflict, everyone is operating under the theory "We should remove their leader." So if they had to, for instance, choose to assassinate exactly one of Bush or Kerry, it would be Bush. And if the President of the United States were to be defeated in an election, they'd love that too...no matter who that President is. If Kerry is elected, then he'll become their #1 target, and 4 years from now they'll hope he's thrown out, too.

Comparison #1: When Iran was calling the USA the Great Satan, they were calling Jimmy Carter that as well. Their release of the hostages at the moment of Reagan's inauguration establishes their desire to poke Carter in the eye. Surely no Republican would want us to imagine that this shows that they feared Carter more than Reagan, or thought that Reagan would be easier on them than Carter had been...right?

Comparison #2: The RNC is making the defeat of Tom Daschle a priority. Is it because they think that with him gone, the Democrats in the Senate would have no leader? Of course not...they just want to knock off the top guy, because it feels good.

So...yeah, AQ would probably rather Bush lose, but not for any reason that has anything to do with the relative anti-AQ policies of Bush or Kerry. Oh, and to the Bush administration flunky who gave this quote:

"The view of al Qaeda is ‘anybody but Bush.’”

For your choice of words, which gives AQ the same slogan as mainstream Democrats...fuck you.

- posted by Don Porges @ 8/21/2004 11:57:00 PM

free website counter