LOOKING BACK AT THE BIN LADEN TAPE, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

--Osama Bin Laden is a very smart man, whatever else he is.

--Whatever Bin Laden does, he is a "super-empowered individual" in the world scheme, as Tom Friedman would put it, and thus he acts with the foreknowledge that whatever he does will have international consequences.

--That said, he can usually predict the response he gets from a given group to a given action of his. With that in mind,

--Osama released a tape for international consumption, particularly American consumption, in the days leading up to our election.

--In the tape, he attacked President Bush numerous times verbally, including chiding him for reading "about a pet goat" during the 9/11 attacks.

--Advantageous Republicans, including members of Bush's campaign, sought to quickly paint the Bin Laden tape as his de facto endorsement of John Kerry, and make that the conventional wisdom in the media about the tape. There is no reason to believe that Osama wouldn't have been able to predict this would happen.

--A few days later, Bush wins the election, apparently with undecided voters tending to swing towards him.

Now the question goes to Bush supporters: Do you honestly believe that you have "outsmarted" Bin Laden by re-electing your man?

In prosecuting the war on terror the way he has, George W Bush has rendered us a chesspiece and deprived us of our bird's-eye view of the gameboard.