Here at Basie!, I try to provide news and analysis about national and statewide politics and the media. Although I have an obvious slant, I try not to gove too much opinion in my reporting. Given the magnitude of the Osama Bin Laden tape, I think I should at least lay down a few ideas.

No matter how you look at this story, at its core it is good for the President--anything that takes the focus of the media away from bungled operations in Iraq is good for the President. What is more, any focus on terrorism will inherently help the President because that's just about the only area in which he scores above 50% with the American people.

That having been said, a Bush victory in the first news cycle does not ensure a Bush victory overall on the story. The Kerry rapid response team led by Clintonista Joe Lockhart has a difficult job at this point to spin the coverage in a way that is more favorable to Kerry than Bush. Although the meme of "this tape showing OBL alive proves we haven't done enough to combat Al Qaeda" is a good start, I'm not sure that it will catch. Instead, I propose the Kerry team work on something like what happened in Spain.

Conservatives in America fundamentally misunderstand what happened in Spain this year. They believe that the train bombing shifted enough anti-war voters away from the ruling party to elect the Socialist candidate, but this is incorrect. Aznar's government immediately tried to use the bombing for political gain by blaming the attack on ETA--the Basque seperatists--and the public realized this and threw them out of government as a result.

As we saw with Bush's speech today, he is entirely willing to try to use this tape to enhance his chances at winning, so it is Lockhart and Company's job to explain to the media that it is unexceptable to use the OBL tape for political gain. I do not forsee Americans taking to the streets in protest like the Spanish did in response to their government lying to them, but attacking the ruling party for using terrorism as an electoral device can be a highly effective tool at fighting back.

I don't know if the media or the American people will accept this argument, but the Kerry rapid response team--honed from years fighting the "vast right-wing conspiracy" while defending Clinton--is the best the Democrats can offer, so if they can't pull this off, I'm not sure anyone can.