Uh huh. Because it’s not like OBL ever criticized Presidents Bush or Clinton. Suddenly criticism from the bearded man in a cave shows that he’s afraid of the person he’s criticizing? Because I recall him pretty visciously attacking Bush at the same time the media talked about Bush’s failed policies against OBL and how Al Qaeda was on the rise. But suddenly criticism shows fear. Gotcha.

CAIRO – A day before President Barack Obama is to deliver a speech here seeking goodwill with the Islamic world, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden tried in a new message Wednesday to convince Muslims they should hate him.

The message was the second from al-Qaida in as many days criticizing Obama. Analysts said the PR offensive shows the terrorist organization worries the new president will succeed in improving America’s image in the Muslim world and undermine the group’s anti-American jihad, or holy war.

“Obama’s election is just about the worst thing that could have happened to these guys,” said Tom Sanderson, a terrorism expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They knew right away that his election undermined a key part of their argument that the U.S. was anti-Islamic, that the U.S. was racist.”

I’m no doctor, but I can diagnose Mr. Sanderson with Fuckingstupiditus. Their argument doesn’t change suddenly because a black man won the presidential election. In case Sanderson hasn’t noticed, jihadists aren’t terribly concerned with someone’s supposed racism. As Ace says:

Yes, that was a key part of their argument. Everyone knows that jihadist Arab and Pakistani Muslims hate racists. They hate them almost as much as they hate Jews. And black Africans.

The spin gets more and more pathetic.