Osama and Wargames

Remember the scene in Wargames when everyone in Norad thinks that the first of the Russian strikes are about to hit? That woman's steely voice counts down as they military bases so they can talk to people when the strikes are supposed to hit. "Impact" occurs on their monitors, and after a slight delay you hear the voices of the men on the phone celebrating the fact that they are alive, and no one actually got hit.

For some reason, that's what I think of when I read that Osama's latest tape seems to have no impact on the election, despite the media's constant attempt to spin it that way.

In fact, some might say this tape has helped John Kerry instead:

The Democracy Corps has a new poll, conducted Friday night and Saturday morning. While the full survey will be completed on Sunday, the half-sample of 500 interviews conducted after the release of the Bin Laden tape, show the race unchanged compared to a survey completed Thursday night. The partial survey shows Kerry at 48 percent and Bush at 47 percent. Like the survey conducted before, it shows the two parties with equal numbers of party identifiers.

The Saturday respondents (250 interviews) were asked the following question: "I'm going to read you a pair of statements about the release of Bin Laden's videotape. Please tell me which one comes closer to your view.

-- It makes me think that George Bush took his eye off the ball in Afghanistan and diverted resources to Iraq.

-- It underscores the importance of George Bush's approach to the war on terrorism.

By 10 points (46 to 36 percent), voters were more likely to think that Bush took his eye off the ball. (These results will be updated when the full survey is completed on Sunday.)

Get Out the Vote!