It's pretty clear that Tommaso over at CalJunket has precisely the ouside-the-box viewpoint on Al Qaeda that I had hoped to hear from somebody. In discussing the motivations of Al Qaeda (or whoever) in Spain:

Some conservatives have tried to spin this as a victory for Al-Qaeda. They say that Al-Qeada wanted to [use] the bombs to scare the Spanish into pulling out of Iraq. If you are still stuck thinking of Al-Qaeda as some conventional far off country run by logical people with logical goals, this makes sense. If you see Al-Qeada as a terrorist organization with the loopy goal of starting a war between the Islamic world and the West (like some other terrorist organizations want to start race wars), you understand that what they are really rooting for is the election of the most thoughtless, reactionary, unserious, political opportunists. They're looking for the kind of people that will ramp up separatist rhetoric and attack countries that have nothing to do with terrorists. If they do so while cutting funding for first responders and port security; Hell, you just hit the jack-pot!

And in the comments:

Here then, we see that Al-Qaeda's effective goal was not to have Spain pull out of Iraq and refocus its anti-terror efforts more efficiently and honestly, but to make it appear like they had the power to effect elections. The organization is just trying to propagate itself and earn more recruits. Unfortunately, many America conservatives fell right into Al-Qaeda's trap, declaring Al-Qaeda to be so powerful that it has the ability to decide European elections. That the election was actually swayed by incompetence and unseriousness on the part of Spanish conservatives is extra ironic. It is interesting to note that the elections were in a dead heat until the Spanish conservative party's lies were exposed on television. They did so only because the Socialist party threatened to reveal the information themselves.

Memo to David Brooks, Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Reynolds (apparently, haven't checked), Christopher Hitchens, nutbar Freepers, and all the rest: What is Osama bin Laden supposed to think when you keep saying that he's won? You're the only ones saying that! Do you want him to win? You guys need to get more serious about terrorism.