Bin Laden accepting surrenders on a state-by-state basis
Bin Laden's Warning to "Red" States
| The internals of the Washington Post/ABC News Poll - I have just learned the following about this poll:
President Bush is only .2 from the 50% mark in the poll. Undecided voters favor the President 47%-36%. Among union voters, Kerry’s support is less than the Democratic candidate’s support in 2000. This bodes very well for the President in the Midwest and Pennsylvania. |
| ...Sunday Afternoon – Hospital Visit in Moscow
Today was hard, tomorrow will be harder. Today we visited two hospitals in Moscow where many of the survivors were being treated after being triaged out of Beslan. Room after room is filled with children with their broken bodies and damaged minds. In every room there is a parent, aunt, brother or grandma keeping watch - waiting for the wounds to heal. In every room there is a story of heartbreak. In the first visit we meet a 16 year old boy who lies in very serious condition. This young man had the courage to grab the gun of a terrorist who had been shot and proceeded to kill another terrorist who was shooting at fleeing children. He then placed his body over a small girl for protection from the onslaught of bullets and shrapnel meant for her. In the next room, two sisters ages 8 and 10 lay in good spirits… It’s the 8 year olds birthday today, and my wife sings happy birthday to her in Russian. The little girl smiled, and lit up the room. Her aunt was sitting in the back of the room, and began to cry. I wish I could say the woman’s tears were for joy from the little girls smile. However they were tears because she knew of the pain yet awaiting both girls. They had lost both parents in the tragedy, but did not know it yet. It became more difficult as we made the move from room to room to hear the stories of these children’s bravery, and got to know these survivors and their families personally. We met the mother of a 12 year old girl who lies quietly as she unfolded a piece of gauze to show the ball bearing that the doctors took out of her daughters’ lung. Apparently the terrorists had packed the bombs with ball bearings to add to the shrapnel’s effect... |
| It's quite clear from the polls that most Americans fundamentally think Bush does get this. Last March, Americans preferred Bush over Kerry in fighting terrorism by 60 percent to 33 percent, according to the Gallup Poll. Now, after a furious campaign and months of criticism, that number is unchanged. Bush is untouched on this issue.
Bush's response yesterday to the video was exactly right. He said we would not be intimidated. He tried to take the video out of the realm of crass politics by mentioning Kerry by name and assuring the country that he was sure Kerry agreed with him. Kerry did say that we are all united in the fight against bin Laden, but he just couldn't help himself. His first instinct was to get political. On Milwaukee television, he used the video as an occasion to attack the president... ...Even in this shocking moment, this echo of Sept. 11, Kerry saw his political opportunities and he took 'em. There's such a thing as being so nakedly ambitious that you offend the people you hope to impress. But politics has shaped Kerry's approach to this whole issue. |
| ...It is important to notice what he has stopped saying in this speech. He has stopped talking about the restoration of the Global Caliphate. There is no more mention of the return of Andalusia. There is no more anticipation that Islam will sweep the world. He is no longer boasting that Americans run at the slightest wounds; that they are more cowardly than the Russians. He is not talking about future operations to swathe the world in fire but dwelling on past glories. He is basically saying if you leave us alone we will leave you alone. Though it is couched in his customary orbicular phraseology he is basically asking for time out.
The American answer to Osama's proposal will be given on Election Day. One response is to agree that the United States of America will henceforth act like Sweden, which is on track to become majority Islamic sometime after the middle of this century. The electorate best knows which candidate will serve this end; which candidate most promises to be European-like in attitude and they can choose that path with both eyes open. The electorate can strike that bargain and Osama may keep his word. The other course is to reject Osama's terms utterly; to recognize the pleading in his outwardly belligerent manner and reply that his fugitive existence; the loss of his sanctuaries; the annihilation of his men are but the merest foretaste of what is yet to come: to say that to enemies such as he, the initials 'US' will always mean Unconditional Surrender. Osama has stated his terms. He awaits America's answer. |
| A U.S. Army officer came forward Friday to say a team from the 3rd Infantry Division took about 250 tons of munitions and other material from the Al-Qaqaa arms-storage facility soon after Saddam Hussein's regime fell in April 2003.
Maj. Austin Pearson said at a Pentagon news conference that he was tasked in the days after the fall of the Iraqi regime with a mission to secure and destroy ammunition and explosives. He led a 25-man team called Task Force Bullet... |
| FROM A SOURCE CLOSE TO THE CAMPAIGN [10/28 02:07 PM]
Just heard from a source close to the campaign, tuned in to the conversations at the highest levels. According to the Bushies, the last few days have seen a huge burst of momentum in their numbers. They think Bush is ahead by a few points nationally. They expect the next round of tracking polls to show a bit of a bump. The internal polls show a significant lead in Florida (outside margin of error) and Arkansas is out of play, with a Bill Clinton visit or without. As for most of the other big ones - Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, internal polls show all too close to call. Michigan is seriously looking like a pickup - Bush and Cheney could be there four times in the last four days. An exit poll of those who have already voted show Bush ahead by 15 points! [UPDATE: This is ahead 15 points overall, nationwide, not just in Michigan. Obviously, those who have already voted are only a small, small segment of the electorate at large, so one should not read too much into this number. But it is interesting.] Undecided voters appear to be breaking Bush’s way - some days he has a slight lead, other days it’s right around 50-50. (Note this would be considerably better than the 1/3 calculated that Bush needs here. Finally, the ammo dump story appears to have left the Kerry campaign deep in al-Qaqaa. Tommy Franks is going to enter this story and rip Kerry and the New York Times a new one. The Kerry folks are acting like they realized they have botched this story, and want to shift back to domestic topics. Lockhart, Bill Richardson on Imus — when asked about al-QaQaa, they dodge the question and quickly try to bring up other issues. The campaign is going to avoid the Russian angle and go with the straightforward, “As the facts mount in this story, American people have a choice between believing Kerry-NYTimes-CBS or believing Bush and the Troops.” This source close to the campaign didn’t say it, but I wonder if the Bush administration wants to deal with Russia in its own manner, and not have whatever diplomatic confrontations are going on behind the scenes complicated by a furious American electorate blaming Russia for hiding Iraq’s weapons and explosives. |
| “I know few people enthused about John Kerry. His record is undistinguished, and where it stands out, mainly regrettable. He intuitively believes that if a problem exists, it is the government’s job to fix it. He has far too much faith in international institutions, like the corrupt and feckless United Nations, in the tasks of global management. He got the Cold War wrong. He got the first Gulf War wrong. His campaign’s constant and excruciating repositioning on the war against Saddam have been disconcerting, to say the least. I completely understand those who look at this man’s record and deduce that he is simply unfit to fight a war for our survival. They have an important point–about what we know historically of his character and his judgment when this country has faced dire enemies. His scars from the Vietnam War lasted too long and have gone too deep to believe that he has clearly overcome the syndrome that fears American power rather than understands how to wield it for good."–Andrew Sullivan, endorsing John Kerry, The New Republic, Oct. 26
“I can’t remember ever voting for anybody I disliked as much as I do John Kerry, at least not for president, but vote for him I will. I didn’t have much use for Al Gore either, but I don’t remember any real sense of hostility before punching the hole next to his name. . . . I can’t persuade anybody to vote for a candidate for whom I can muster so little enthusiasm, but there must be an awful lot of people out there who are going to cast votes next week for Kerry who are, like me, discouraged by the prospect and needing one of those you-are-not-alone talks."–Mark Brown, endorsing John Kerry, Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 27 “I remain totally unimpressed by John Kerry. Outside of his opposition to the death penalty, I’ve never seen him demonstrate any real political courage. His baby steps in the direction of reform liberalism during the 1990s were all followed by hasty retreats. His Senate vote against the 1991 Gulf War demonstrates an instinctive aversion to the use of American force, even when it’s clearly justified. Kerry’s major policy proposals in this campaign range from implausible to ill-conceived. He has no real idea what to do differently in Iraq. His health-care plan costs too much to be practical and conflicts with his commitment to reducing the deficit. At a personal level, he strikes me as the kind of windbag that can only emerge when a naturally pompous and self-regarding person marinates for two decades inside the U.S. Senate. If elected, Kerry would probably be a mediocre, unloved president on the order of Jimmy Carter."–Jacob Weisberg, endorsing John Kerry, Slate, Oct. 26 |
| A new study for the non-partisan Project for Excellence in Journalism suggests that in the first two weeks of October, during the period of the presidential debates, George W. Bush received much more unfavorable coverage from some media than Sen. John Kerry.
In the limited sample (which included four newspapers, two cable news programs and seven shows on broadcast networks), more than half of all Bush stories were negative in tone, during this period. One-quarter of all Kerry stories were negative, according to the study. |
| ..."The greatest nightmare we have to go on is a nuclear bomb going off in one of our major cities," Cohen told the gathering of federal and private-sector information technology executives.
It is a "brave new world where terrorism and technology are merged," he added... |
| ...[We] know much... about [Kerry's] liabilities: a tendency to overstudy issues, procrastinate and avoid hard choices; a willingness to be swayed by conflicting advice; an awkwardness in dealing with colleagues and staff; and a frequent impression that decisions are being guided by opportunism rather than firm beliefs... a man whose habits of mind and of action are far removed from the challenges of the White House... |