WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE

First, from Atrios

More Republicans Celebrating Proof of Failure

Yay! Bin Laden's alive!

Wrapping up a campaign shadowed by war and terrorism, President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry unabashedly sought political advantage Saturday from Osama bin Laden's re-emergence.


"It's very helpful to the president," contended Bush ally Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., although the president didn't mention the menacing new message from bin Laden at his first campaign stops on a four-state, 14-hour swing.

Weird people, Republicans.

..and, Josh Marshall has the poll results.

***
bin Laden = "a little gift"

What Republicans think of the guy responsible for thousands killed:

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.

and Kos notes the GOP response as well

Republicans celebrate their incompetence

No surprise, but the Bush people are giddy as can be that they've failed to capture or kill Osama.

"We want people to think 'terrorism' for the last four days," said a Bush-Cheney campaign official. "And anything that raises the issue in people's minds is good for us."

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.

And as the Chicken Littles among us run around in a blind panic, note that Fox News's pollster reported that Bush's numbers have gone down since the OBL tape aired. (Poll here. Info that the post-OBL numbers for Bush were down came from the broadcast.)

I'm not sure why Republicans think the American voters will reward incompetence.

MORE: This all puts Brad Delong in mind of this passage from Emmanuel Goldstein's Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism:

George Orwell - 1984 (full text, online, free) - Part 2, Chapter 9: [S]o long as they remain in conflict they prop one another up, like... sheaves of corn.... [I]t is necessary that the war should continue everlastingly and without victory.... In past ages, a war, almost by definition, was something that sooner or later came to an end, usually in unmistakable victory or defeat.... But when war becomes literally continuous.... The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture.... But though it is unreal it is not meaningless...