Bush finally admits he needed Bin Laden to win election! Fucking LOL!

BUSH NOW ADMITS BIN LADEN HELPED HIM BEAT JOHN KERRY

**Exclusive**

President Bush now says his 2004 victory over Sen. John Kerry, who is
mulling a comeback in 2008, was inadvertently aided by al Qaeda terrorist
leader Osama bin Laden. And Republican National Committee Chairman Ken
Mehlman, who steadfastly refused to defend Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth
when he ran Bush's campaign, now calls them "heroes" who played a crucial
role in vanquishing Kerry. Bill Sammon, Senior White House Correspondent for
the WASHINGTON EXAMINER, scores another exclusive for Tuesday editions with
explosive excerpts from his new book, STRATEGERY. For the first time, the
president says he was helped by bin Laden, who put out a videotaped diatribe
against Bush the Friday before the 2004 election. Bush said there were
"enormous amounts of discussion" inside his campaign about the 15-minute
tape, which he called "an interesting entry by our enemy" into the
presidential race. "What does it mean? Is it going to help? Is it going to
hurt?" he said in an exclusive interview for the new book STRATEGERY.
"Anything that drops in at the end of a campaign that is not already decided
creates all kinds of anxieties, because you're not sure of the effect. "I
thought it was going to help," he decided. "I thought it would help remind
people that if bin Laden doesn't want Bush to be the president, something
must be right with Bush." Mehlman agreed, citing polls that show Americans
trust Republicans more than Democrats on matters of national security. "It
reminded people of the stakes," he said in an interview for STRATEGERY. "It
reinforced an issue on which Bush had a big lead over Kerry." Even the
mainstream media fretted about the tape's potential to help Bush. Former CBS
anchorman Walter Cronkite told CNN that White House strategist Karl Rove
"probably set up bin Laden to this thing." The bin Laden tape was not the
only curveball thrown at Bush in the closing days of the campaign. The NEW
YORK TIMES published a story faulting the administration for failing to
safeguard a cache of weapons in Iraq that went missing around the time of
the U.S. invasion more than eighteen months earlier. Some Republicans
regarded the story as a political "stink bomb," much like the revelation
just before the 2000 election that Bush had once been arrested for driving
under the influence of alcohol. Bush said the weapons flap "was different
from the DUI story, which defined me personally-as opposed to my policies.
And there's a difference." The Times quoted Kerry accusing the president of
"incredible incompetence" and calling the missing explosives "one of the
great blunders of Iraq." Bush responded by turning Kerry's newfound concern
over weapons against him. "After repeatedly calling Iraq the wrong war, and
a diversion, Senator Kerry this week seemed shocked to learn that Iraq was a
dangerous place, full of dangerous weapons," Bush deadpanned, drawing
laughter from an audience in Pennsylvania. Mehlman was similarly incredulous
that Kerry would deviate from his long-held position that Bush had
exaggerated the weapons threat in Iraq. "I was stunned that he brought it
up," the campaign manager said. "He was essentially saying it was wrong to
remove Saddam Hussein, even though we've just discovered all these dangerous
weapons in the country. "Politics is like a chess game," he added. "If you
don't think a few moves ahead, then you always end up like Homer Simpson
going, 'Doh!'" Even more helpful to the Bush campaign was the flap over
Kerry's Vietnam service. For the first time, Mehlman is now defending the
Swift Boat veterans, who questioned Kerry's Vietnam record and savaged his
claim that U.S. soldiers were war criminals. "These are people who are
incredible," Mehlman said of the "Swifties." "You may disagree with what
they're saying. But these are heroes. These are people that suffered in
prison camps for America. "And to respond and say, 'These are bums who don't
have a right to speak. But other veterans who agree with us do,' is
responding with a hammer and not a scalpel," he added. "The Kerry campaign
seemed unable to use a scalpel. Instead, they had to use a hammer for
everything." After the election, Rove and other Bush officials initially
downplayed any role the Swift Boat Veterans might have played in the
campaign. But now there is widespread acknowledgment in the White House that
the veterans were pivotal in vanquishing Kerry. "I felt they had a very big
impact," Mehlman said. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said in an
interview that the Swift Boat Veterans "had an impact to Kerry's detriment.
I think they tended to put him on the defensive." But that impact would not
have been possible if Kerry had not spent so much time emphasizing his
Vietnam record, Mehlman said. "I think the mistake that Kerry made was
making the entire essence of his campaign that he served in Vietnam," he
said. "Ultimately, it wasn't that relevant of an issue." Besides, by
focusing on Vietnam, Kerry invited criticism of his 1971 congressional
testimony that fellow Vietnam veterans were war criminals, Mehlman said. "No
one's taking away his service," he emphasized. "The question was his
judgment when he came back." Ultimately, Kerry's emphasis on Vietnam proved
self-defeating. "It reinforced something about him," Mehlman said. "By the
end of the campaign, from a character perspective, he came across as a guy
who is just ambition over everything." He contrasted Kerry unfavorably with
former Sen. Bob Dole, Kansas Republican, who was severely wounded in World
War II, and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, who spent more than five
years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.


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