What Osama Proves

The bin Laden tape, on the heels of the "blood in the street" al Qaeda tape released earlier this week, is more confirming than chilling. Here's what it tells us:

1. al Qaeda's got nothing. If they really wanted to disrupt our election, they woud attack us with something more powerful than videotapes. Talk is cheap, and cheap is all they've got. The fact that the two tapes were released independently so close to each other indicates that there is no communication between the various factions. As a communications strategist, I know you don't dilute the big message by releasing a lesser message just days earlier. And that leads to:
2. Bush's strategy is working. The killing and jailing of al Qaeda leadership, the driving of them further underground, the attack on their finances, the diversion of their resources by the Iraq war -- these combine to create the situation where al Qaeda's got no power to attack, no communication, no plan other than survival. And in time the Bush strategy will take care of that last point, crushing them.
3. The Left has lost its message. The message-drivers of the Dems are unequivocally proven to be deceitful, liars or paranoid (multiple answers allowed). Bush is holding bin Laden for a pre-election announcement? No. Bush was behind 9/11? No. It's all about oil? No. Tonight, Alan Combs was reduced to shouting at Peggy Noonan the tired Tora Bora "outsource" argument, which has been thoroughly discredited by Tommy Franks. Noonan looked like she wanted to slug him. I sure did.
4. Kerry's got nothing to say. Since bin Laden pointedly says it doesn't matter whether Kerry or Bush is elected, Kerry's left with nothing to say but the vague promise that he would fight the war better. Better enough to merit changing horses in the middle of this particular stream?
5. Bin Laden confirms that our only viable tactic is a preemptive one. The bearded Hitler says it's OK for Jihadists to attack offensively, but any defensive response is a crime against humanity. Arab terrorists kill Israeli children, women and men from Lebanon and it's OK, but responding is a transgression against humanity. They fly airplanes into buildings and it's heroic, but responding isn't justified. Given the option bin Laden leaves us -- we attack, you cower -- preemption is fully justified.

So all in all, the tape is good news for Bush, who the public broadly perceives as the better war time leader.

But I have to admit, I was hoping bin Laden had been reduced to broken strands of DNA by our military, and it's disappointing that he's proved that wrong.