US and the World

Candidates predicatble - voters are not

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Candidates Give Tough Response to a Qaeda Tape

In my view neither candidate gave an honest reaction to the bin Laden tape. They both said essentially the same thing - what they think most voters want to hear: This man doesn't scare us and we're going to hunt him down and kill him.

OK, that's an obvious response to the obvious threat. But it won't win the war on terrorism. Osama bin Laden doesn't stand alone. He has countless supporters in Muslim (Arab and non-Arab) countries around the world - probably far more now than he did before we invaded Iraq. And neither candidate gives us any idea how we are going to deal with them.

There are real issues here involving real people and they revolve around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict which no one has been able to resolve for more than half a century. And even if this is resolved, we have incredibly deep cultural and economic conflicts. These don't involve democracy or political freedoms - they involve the role and treatment of women, sexual freedom, lifestyles, and our indisputable economic dominance.

None of these issues are easy to resolve. I think Kerry might make some progress on them if he doesn't get too wrapped up in all this macho posturing and start believing his own rhetoric.I have absolutely no confidence in Bush being able to resolve them.

The other thing I think is a complete puzzle is how voters will react to the bin Laden tape. If they see bin Laden as somehow being supportive of Kerry and trying to influence the election, then they will respond by voting for Bush. On the other hand, if this tape reminds them that Bush took his eye off the ball and let this arch-enemy of the United States escape unscathed to lead another attack on us, they will vote for Kerry.

(The Bush charge that Kerry is politicising national security is laughable. National security is the biggest single issue of this campaign and both candidates have made it so from day 1. )

I don't have a clue which way this tape will go in terms of influencing the elction, but I wish our candidates could have an adult discussion about it, instead of all this childish psoturing. Fear, hatred, and threats of violence simply generates more fear, hatred and violence. We won't defeat bin Laden by making ourselves as twisted and sick with fear and loathing as he is.