Bush: Osama bin Laden helped me get reelected

The president says a videotape from the al-Qaida leader may have persuaded voters to cast their lot with him.

Published March 1, 2006 2:15PM (EST)

As we were saying:

In an interview for Bill Sammon's new book, "Strategery," George W. Bush says that that last-minute videotape from Osama bin Laden may have helped get him reelected in 2004. Bush tells Sammon that there was a lot of talk within his campaign when the video of bin Laden surfaced just days before voters went to the polls.

"What does it mean? Is it going to help? Is it going to hurt?'' Bush says. ''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."

Bush? He was pretty sure. "I thought it was going to help,'' he says. ''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.''


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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