Daily Kos: State of the Nation
The United States got itself in to a strange situation with Musharraf, in which the structure of its aid to the Pakistan government essentially incented the government not to find Bin Laden because if they found him they had reason to fear that the US would end this flow of more than $10 billion that it was providing directly to the army. The democratic government came to power arguing to Washington that constitutional democracy was a better counterterrorism strategy than reliance on an authoritarian military leader. So, I think they understand, if they can deliver Osama, theyre not going to be punished for it, rather theyre going to be rewarded. So, for the first time, you have somebody in the Pakistani government who has motivation to find him. And at the same time, the population in which hes hiding has turned more hostile to him, so the possibility of someone dropping a dime on him is much greater now than it was a couple of years ago.

Here’s a thought: As One Utah’s Richard Warnick notes, it’s the election silly season. Rather than endlessly dissecting Barack Obama’s terrible bowling scores and Hilary’s bravery under Bosnian sniper fire, it might be nice if the Democrats collectively figure out a position on Bin Laden to signal the new democratic government of Pakistan that it might be nice if they captured OBL.

When? Just after Reality-Based Lifeforms’ Liberation Day would be good, but I think the world would understand it wasn’t really Bush’s Mission Accomplished if Bin Laden is delivered before Election Day.

By the way… I hadn’t realized that “Bush Countdown Clocks” had become such a robust little subset of national industry. Maybe Bernanke wouldn’t be so fast to use the “R” word (as noted by WWDTM in this morning’s show) if he knew how big the market for anti-Bush tchotchkes was.