WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (AFP) - Leading US newspapers were not convinced Saturday that Osama bin Laden's video would have a significant impact on the US presidential election, set for Tuesday.
In an analysis, The Washington Post quoted experts as saying the Al-Qaeda leader's message to the American people would not have much of an effect on their voting plans.
"He's injecting himself into the campaign to show he's a world player," Daniel Benjamin, a former counterterrorism official, told the daily. Another expert underscored to the Post that bin Laden himself stressed that it does not matter who the US president is.
The conservative Washington Times quoted Richard Holbrooke, a foreign policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, as saying bin Laden is making a big mistake if he thinks he can affect the US election.
Washington's most wanted man compared the administration of US President George W. Bush to corrupt Arab regimes governed "by the offspring of kings and presidents."
He accused Bush of an incompetent reaction to September 11 because "it was more important to preoccupy himself with the talk of the little girl about her goat ... than with the planes and their strike on the skyscrapers" -- a reference to the president's reflective reaction to news of the attacks while reading to schoolchildren.
But he also said there was little difference between the two main presidential candidates.
"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Any (presidential) mandate which does not play havoc with our security would automatically ensure its own security."
Bin Laden also said that reasons to repeat the September 11, 2001 attacks remain, because US policy has not changed and "Bush is still misleading you."
The Los Angeles Times noted that in this neck-and-neck presidential race, the impact of bin Laden's remarks is questionable enough that Republicans believe they will help Bush and hurt Kerry, while Democrats argue the opposite.