A number of people are now remarking about how many of Osama bin Laden's talking points, from the tape broadcast yesterday, precisely mirror the Democratic talking points of this campaign.

Remember on September 11th, when the president continued to sit with the children for a few minutes, fearing that he would alarm them if he got up and rushed out of the room, after being told by Chief of Staff Andrew Card that a second plane had hit the second tower of the World Trade Center? The Democrats, and John Kerry, have attacked the president on this for months. On August, 20, 2004, Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said that "John Kerry is not the type of leader who will sit and read 'My Pet Goat' to a group of second graders while America is under attack." My Pet Goat is the book that Bush was reading to the schoolkids when Andrew Card whispered the word of the second attack into the president's ears.

Michael Moore, who the Democrats saw fit to seat next to former President Jimmy Carter at this year's Democratic Convention, has been touring the country, attacking the president for sitting with the children and reading "My Pet Goat."

With the above in mind, here is what Osama bin Laden had to say in yesterday's broadcast tape:

"It never occurred to us that he, the commander in chief of the country, would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone, because he thought listening to a child discussing her goats was more important."

Unbelievable! Do you see the similarities in the comments of Michael Moore, the Kerry Campaign and Osama bin Laden? This is absolutely incredible.

Powerline lastnight noted the similarities between Osama's ranting and the Democratic talking points:

A partial translation of "Osama bin Laden's" video is here. I said on Kudlow and Cramer this afternoon that reports of bin Laden's speech made it sound as if he had absorbed the Democrats' talking points quite well. Reading the speech, or excerpts thereof, reinforces that thought:

"I am surprised by you. Despite entering the fourth year after September 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you, and therefore the reasons are still there for a repeat of what happened."

Bush is hiding the truth: a central theme of the Democrats in general, and Michael Moore, their intellectual leader, in particular.

God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers.

No comment.

"He [Bush] adopted despotism and the crushing of freedoms from Arab rulers and called it the Patriot Act under the guise of combating terrorism. . . ."

It's Ashcroft's fault. Where do you suppose he got that?

"It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the American forces would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone at a time when they most needed him because he thought listening to a child discussing her goat and its ramming was more important than the planes and their ramming of the skyscrapers. This gave us three times the time needed to carry out the operations, thanks be to God. . . ."

This is, of course, pure Michael Moore. Obviously bin Laden has seen Fahrenheit 9/11, or at least heard about it from other terrorists who have seen it. Just as obviously, they approve of Moore's movie.

Do you suppose there are any Democrats honest enough to be embarrassed that Osama bin Laden has enthusiastically adopted their campaign themes?

UPDATE: In one respect, bin Laden failed to follow John Kerry's talking points. Bin Laden knows he is in a war; he said: "O American people, I am speaking to tell you about the ideal way to avoid another Manhattan, about war and its causes and results." That's "war," w-a-r.

John Kerry, however, can't quite bring himself to acknowledge the war that the terrorists have so unequivocally declared. In his statement today he said: "...we are all united in hunting down and capturing or killing those who conducted that raid and we always knew that that was Osama bin Laden."

Those raids can be such a nuisance.

Kerryspot today has a great post on the similarities, and what this probably means for the election:

Okay, having had a good night (and morning) of sleep, I've gathered some more coherent thoughts on this Osama tape and the election.

First, is there any doubt that some bootleg DVD or videotape of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" made it to a remote mountain village somewhere near the Afghan-Pakistan border?

Now we hear Osama saying, "It never occurred to us that he, the commander in chief of the country, would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone, because he thought listening to a child discussing her goats was more important."

Was the story of Bush's seven minutes in the schoolhouse really well known or a hot topic of discussion before Moore's movie came out? Is there any doubt that if not Osama, then one of his flunkies watched that movie and excitedly repeated the story to his spiritual leader, bubbling with excitement that even American filmmakers were exposing the foolishness of the Crusader Bush?

All the stuff Osama said about George H.W. Bush - (has 41 ever been mentioned in a previous Osama tape?) and the Saudis and corruption and the oil deals - does any of that sound any different from the arguments in Fahrenheit 9/11?

I could be proven wrong, but I now have drastically revised my prediction of what's going to happen on election night. A Bush landslide is now exponentially more likely, as every voter walks into the voting booth with the topic of terrorism on his or her mind. It's far and away Bush's strongest issue.

There are times when America wants the eloquent, nuanced multilateral, French-speaking, consensus-building, flexible and cautious negotiator. And then there are times when the country wants the plain-spoken butt-kicking aggressive unilateralist cowboy. Guess which time this is?

A majority of Kerry Spot readers won’t like reading this, but there is a part of me that right now pities John Kerry. This election - (I think, and I could be wrong) was going to be a fairly close race and now is going to be a landslide for Bush. To lose the election because Osama bin Laden decides to pop out of his cave and play pundit, reading the talking points of Michael Moore and sounding calmer than Lawrence O’Donnell… that’s a tough way to lose an long and hard-fought election. Team Kerry gave it their best shot, and now the closing days of the campaign are overtaken by events. It just wasn’t their year.

But this tape probably ought to trigger some serious soul-searching on the left. Let me give you a sense of what I mean:

Last night, I heard secondhand that a left-of-center friend said, during a discussion about the tape, “Well, now I actually agree with bin Laden, I mean, the stuff he said about Bush.”

It was probably meant as a joke, or as a statement of irony. I wasn’t there, so I don’t want to draw conclusions about the statement’s meaning, and apparently the topic of conversation shifted so that no one could really analyze what that speaker meant.

But I have little doubt that in some other corners of our country, a statement like that was probably said and wasn’t a joke, or wasn’t ironic.

There was an old saying about politics stopping at the water’s edge. There was a reason for this, and for the concept of the “loyal opposition.” Suppose the U.S. and another country were in a trade dispute. The other country would want different policies, and thus would want the incumbent party out of power. So they would seize on any criticism from the challenging party, and use it for rhetorical purposes to strengthen their case both with their own population and in other countries. “Even the American challenging party says the incumbent leader’s policies are unfair and a failure.” No party wants to be seen as putting foreign interests ahead of their own citizens’ interests, so they have to be on guard that their arguments aren’t providing fodder for foreign powers with different interests than America.

Over the last three years or so, we have seen that concept obliterated. We’ve seen a truly unparalleled deluge of criticism of the president that well beyond policy differences. He is tarred as a war criminal, a fool, an idiot, a warmonger, a man who trades blood for oil, a mass murderer of innocent civilians, a stooge of sinister corporate interests, a puppet of Cheney, a terrorist himself, the anti-Christ, the second coming of Hitler, a slave to Ariel Sharon, an anti-Muslim hatemonger… and I’m sure I’ve left out plenty.

This rhetoric has been picked up by the British left, the European left, the Arab press, and anti-American interests around the globe. And — to my knowledge — not one Democrat, not one voice on the left has said, “Hey, we know you hate Bush, but stay out of it. He’s our president, leave the criticism of him to us.”

Instead of reacting to the London Guardian’s silly letter-writing campaign with laughter or dismissive criticism, the left embraced it. Why would anyone welcome a foreign power’s advice on how to vote? Next Spring, the British people will hold their election. Why should they listen to my advice or opinion on the choice between Tony Blair and Michael Howard?

The far left hates George W. Bush with a raging fury. So does al-Qaeda. Was it really so shocking that the rhetoric of the former would eventually be taken up by the latter?

No, this tape should cause many on the left to stare into the mirror for a long time and ask, “What have I turned into? How did I become so reflexively partisan, so blinded by rage, so intemperate in my rhetoric that my own arguments are being echoed by a man who planned and enjoyed the mass murder of Americans?”

“How the hell did I reach the point where I agree with Osama bin Laden on Bush?”

Finally, the Kerry campaign is getting very testy about the fact that these similarities between their statements and Osama's rantings are being pointed out:

KERRY CAMPAIGN BLOWS UP AT FOX, THREATENS TO THROW FOX OFF THE PLANE, BACKS OFF:
KERRY CAMP OBJECTS TO 4:00pm FOX NEWS SEGMENT: ALAN COLMES: "It's not like he [Osama bin Laden] had a Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker in his cave." NEIL CAVUTO: "But he's all but doing that, isn't he? I thought I saw a button."

KERRY CAMP ASKS FOR RETRACTION, DOES NOT GET ONE… JOHN SASSO BLOWS UP AT FOX PRODUCER ON PLANE: "Is that the one? Is that her? I want her off the plane tomorrow. I'm not kidding."

COMM. DIR. STEPHANIE CUTTER BACKTRACKS: "He [Sasso] was wrong to say that. We jumped all over him for it."

Let them get upset! Let them scream, and rattle, and stew in the mess that they have made for themselves. The Democratic party has been viciously attacking George W. Bush for months on end, and now Osama bin Laden has picked up their talking points and uttered them for the entire world to see.

If the Democrats and John Kerry are upset about that then I have the following to say to them:

Se la vie!