Bin Laden boosts Dubya

 Osama's video nasty puts Bush in poll position for winning race to White House

PRESIDENT George W Bush's election chances have been given a huge boost—by arch-enemy Osama bin Laden.

The al-Qaeda monster hoped to scupper Bush's chances of re-election on Tuesday by appearing in a video claiming the President had deceived the US people.

But experts last night predicted Bin Laden's efforts could cost Bush's Democrat rival John Kerry votes.

An opinion poll taken shortly before the Bin Laden video was aired showed Kerry with a 47-46 per cent lead over Bush.

But the election insiders now predict the President will make a comeback.

Crucial

A top Bush campaign official said: "This couldn't have been timed better for us. We want people to concentrate on terrorism in the last hours of this campaign.

"This is where the President has shown his strongest hand and it wipes out all the difficult news we have had to deal with over the past week."

Bush has always had a big lead over Kerry on the crucial issue of terrorism. When asked which candidate would fight against it more aggressively, voters pick Bush by 61 per cent to 28 per cent for Kerry.

Bush aides also claim the fact that Bin Laden sent a video instead of carrying out an attack shows how the Republican policy to protect the nation is working.

Kerry's supporters insist Bin Laden's video is a reminder that he is still very much alive. But a vote for Kerry could be seen as a gamble, and at worst reckless, because of his changing positions on the war on terror.

Last night Kerry attacked Bush for botching attempts to capture or kill Bin Laden. Kerry vowed to "stop at nothing" to hunt down the monster.

But the President spat back that the Kerry onslaught was "especially shameful in light of the tape from America's enemy".

The president said: "I'm sure Senator Kerry means well, but his policies are the wrong policies at this time of threat."

Massive

Signs of growing confidence in the Bush camp were confirmed when it was revealed that the President is planning a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

But neither side is leaving anything to chance.

And there will be frantic swings through knife-edge states right up until polling day on Tuesday to get out the maximum vote.

A massive turnout is being predicted with 86 per cent of registered voters saying they are "absolutely determined" to vote—up from 70 per cent four years ago.

Most analysts agree the higher the vote the better the Democrats will end up doing. But Kerry has been warned that rain could ruin his chances as Democrat voters are less likely to turn out in bad weather.

Scars and swipes

By Chris Buckland

WELCOME to the meanest, nastiest, dirtiest campaign I have ever witnessed since I started covering American presidential elections a quarter of a century ago.

Families are at each other's throats. All America has become pure, old-time Chicago.

Fighting has broken out in the streets. There are accusations of vote rigging and low deeds in high places...even before the main polls open in two days.

One man was arrested after he threatened to kill his girlfriend if she voted for John Kerry.

And few days ago a Democrat named Barry Seltzer drove his car at Katherine Harris, the woman who was in charge of the infamously flawed 2000 Florida voting count that handed the presidency to Bush.

Fortunately he missed. But Seltzer, 46, blandly told police: "I was exercising my political expression." Both John Kerry and his sidekick John Edwards dragged in Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary in an attempt to embarrass Bush who wants a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Lipstick

And that led both Cheney and his wife Lynne to quote a saying from their home state of Wyoming: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

Just last week, at a Republican rally in Ohio, I watched Democrats and Republicans letting down each other's tyres. In Florida cars were spray painted with slogans. In all this, the only politician who has almost universal approval is a foreigner—our own Tony Blair.

A senior Democrat in New York confessed over dinner: "Our politicians just aren't as quick on their feet as Blair. He has a way with words, your man."

He was shocked to hear it wasn't quite what they say about him back home.

None of which helps the Americans out of the mess they're in.

As one Republican fund raiser told me: "The way things are going we'll be bringing in observers from Afghanistan to make sure things are fair and free. After all, their election went pretty well."