Does anyone else here think I'm crazy to think Rove had a 'play' in

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

the timing of the Bin Laden tape dropping yesterday? The timing is too damn coincidental. As soon as I heard the breaking news yesterday, that's the first thing that entered my mind.

[jfk2004]

1. I wouldn't put it past him

Nothing would surprise me.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

2. Welcome to DU, JFK2004, btw.

Brand new to our board, I see. Enjoying it so far?

[MikeG]

3. No. The tape is hurting Bush in the polls.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

4. Do you have links? Just curious. I'm hoping people aren't stupid enough

to fall for the 'trap,' but then, people can be pretty flipping stupid (I mean, undecideds at this point?! Sheesh!).

[MikeG]

10. Wapo and Fox News pollsters said last night was good for Kerry.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. I Agree

the tape was a wild card....

[Droopy]

5. Nah

Rove may have far reaching capabilities, but I don't think they reach outside of the U.S.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

7. I don't know. He's pretty shrewd.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. No doubt in my mind. KKKRove had a hand, fist, and a foot in it!

He probably had the tape made. I think it's a fake. The tape was meant to move the explosives story off of the front page. Every time something bad comes out about this administration, they do something like this to change the subject. The sheeple fall for it hook, line and sinker.

[Solomon]

26. The tape also serves an even more important goal. Cement the

belief that Bin Laden did 9-11.

I see it as a security move. If Bush loses, he's in trouble if an real investigation about 9-11 occurs.

This way everybody can participate in another fantasy by consensus, i.e. Bin Laden did it, case closed.

Either the tape is a fake, or Bin Laden works with Bush.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Nope

And the bushies are tight with the House of Saud and the Bin ladin Group... so it is not that crazy.

Just impossible to prove, but not crazy

[GreenPoet64]

Yes I think he had his hand in the timing of the thing AND . . .

while wearing my tinfoil hat :tinfoilhat: the thought occured to me that maybe that WAS him dressed up in that terrorist outfit (the nerdy terrorist) a few days ago--sending out a trial balloon to get preliminary poll numbers to see if it was worth it to air the OBL video.

[wishlist]

9. The timing is incredible, but Bush sure looked stressed out yesterday

Bush looked absolutely exhausted and stressed out with all those deep wrinkles in his forehead and the constant blinking when he gave the short response to reporters after getting off the plane yesterday. He did not have his usual smirky confident attitude that he usually has when he feels in control of events favoring him.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

14. Shrub sure has aged significantly in the past four years. I saw him on

TV yesterday (I can barely look at his smirky face, to be honest w/ you), but I was just noticing how much more wrinkly and grayer he's looked. Guess all the 'hard work' has been taking its toll. That's OK. We have just the man to relieve you of that hard work. ;)

If I may paraphrase the great Jimi Hendrix,

"Move over Rove(r)...and let Kerry take over!"

G-d, I never thought I'd mention Hendrix, Rove and Kerry in the same sentence. Forgive me!

[lasttrip]

24. past four months for that matter.

[Triana]

11. Either...

...Rove had a hand in it's timely release OR OBL just saw this as an opportune time to get Americans' collective attention, or both!.

BOTH of them are conniving scumbags to equal degrees so I wouldn't put it past either of them.

[Shopaholic]

13. Well if he did, it sure doesn't seem to be working the way he

thought it would. The new Fox poll says that he's down 3 points since yesterday. I don't know what time the Fox poll stopped polling yesterday though or if it was before/after release of the OBL tapes. Wouldn't that be ironic if it was indeed a Rovian tactic (highly likely) to boost his boy and it ended up burying him??? What goes around does come around one day, I've always been told. :evilgrin:

[Triana]

21. exactly...

...instant Karma. :evilgrin:

[BeatleBoot]

12. "In politics, nothing happens by coincidence"

Teddy Roosevelt said that...

on edit: spelling

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

16. Smart man, that Teddy Roosevelt. Good name, Beatleboot (love the

Fabs. Gonna see "1964" in a couple of weeks. Seen them in concert?).

[BeatleBoot]

18. No.

[sangh0]

15. Yes

This is HORRIBLE for bush*

[sendero]

17. Seeing as how...

.... as far as I can tell the tape is no favor to Bush*, I don't understand why you guys think Rove had anything to do with it.

Had it been the standard "we're going to strike and kill and strike and kill and strike and kill" terrorist manifesto, then yes, I could beleive Rove might have a hand.

As it is, having OBL criticise Bush for not sending up planes, etc is not what Rove wanted to hear.

Rove does not control the world, despite the absurd notions around here.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

20. I'm not saying "Rove controls the world" and to think that Rove might

have a hand is not an "absurb notion." Controlling politics is not controlling the world per se, though it may control events, like the outcome of the election.

[Individualist]

19. Cronkite thinks Rove was involved

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2560717

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

22. Cronkite..'the most trusted man in news' or something to that effect.

Whatever happened to those kind of newsmen/women?

[sendero]

23. I have great respect for Cronkite...

... but again, if Rove wanted an OBL tape I'm pretty sure he'd like it to reinforce his/Bush*'s message, and the text of this speech does anything but.

And with the failure to capture OBL being a main theme of Kerry's campaign, I fail to see why Rove would want to hear anything at all from the man.

Who knows?

[helnwhls]

28. so we are in good company

[GettysbergII]

25. Reasons I believe that the Bin Laden tape is a phony

Reasons I believe that the Bin Laden tape is a phony:

1) The need to get off the topics of the lost weapons, Halliburton scandal, etc.

2) Timing of dropping the release late on Friday afternoon assures it won’t get probed too deeply until Monday. This is standard operating procedure for the Bush adm.

3) Content of message isn’t typical of Bin Laden, sounds too western perspective.

4) I can’t find the network source that I read it in but in this tape Bin Laden does not use the archaic arabic phrases that he has in all the other tapes nor does he make references to the Koran

5) Image of Bin Laden shown on news stories:
a) has his piercing eyes obscured which is his most prominent feature
b) his nose seems short
c) eyebrows seem to rigid
d) shows his head tilting slightly to left when it seems to me that usually Bin Laden favors tilting head to right
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2558631
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=bin+laden&btnG=Search

6) Appearance of the bogeyman dominating the media will give Bush a couple point short term push regardless of whether its real or not. If all day Monday is wasted by arguments whether the picture is real or not rather than the real issues, then all the better for Bush

7) If there is a terrorist attack before the election this sets up the culprit already.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi GettysbergII!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[skip fox]

29. Tape intercepted in Sept., dropped off on Thurs.???

Bin Laden says now "we have started the 4th year after 9/11" which could be much more contemporary a
reference than has been read (that two-and-one-half months is still a "start").

Could bin Laden's message have been intercepted (CIA, NSA, ?) in Sept. and only dropped off on Thursday
in order to get the missing explosives off the front page??

[Shopaholic]

30. Read this quote from the NY Daily News:

www.nydailynews.com/front/story/247753p-212149c.html:

A senior GOP strategist added, "anything that makes people nervous about their personal safety helps Bush." He called it "a little gift," saying it helps the President but doesn't guarantee his reelection.

Yep--sounds like a RoveCo operation to me.