In a June 5 New York Post column titled "Terrorists for Kerry," author Dick Morris asserted, without citation, “It is obvious that Osama and his allies all want Bush out.”

From the June 5 edition of the New York Post:

Al Qaeda and the Ba'ath Party want to defeat Bush to avenge his tough stance against them after the 9/11 attacks. They know that John Kerry would usher back the Clinton days of timid U.S. reaction and that the Democrat's likely repeal of vital sections of the Patriot Act would open the door for their terror strikes in America. The thugs want Bush out and are determined to ratchet up the cost of the Iraq War to bring about his ouster. That's why they will target any American they can.

As Media Matters for America has previously noted, Reuters reported evidence on March 17 that suggests precisely the opposite: In a statement claiming responsibility for the Madrid bombings that killed nearly 200 people in March, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades -- a terrorist organization that claims to have ties to Al Qaeda -- said it wants to see President George W. Bush reelected in November.

As Media Matters for America also noted, the speculation that Al Qaeda prefers a Kerry win in November was reported by CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena, who, like Morris, did not cite any source for the assertion. The statements of Arena and now Morris are consistent with predictions made by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in April -- and, more recently, by President George W. Bush, as reported by the New York Daily News on June 7 -- that terrorists might attack in the United States to affect the outcome of the November presidential election. (Some believe the terrorists' actions in Spain altered the outcome of the election held there three days later, in which the country's pro-Bush prime minister was voted out of office.)

Morris concluded his New York Post column with this advice for the Bush campaign:

Bush's people should begin to speak of the message a Kerry election and a Bush defeat would send to the terrorists. The Spanish example is worth citing.

It is obvious that Osama and his allies all want Bush out. It might profit Bush's supporters (though not the president himself) to point out this obvious fact to the American people.

Morris's recently published book bashing Senator Hillary Clinton, Rewriting History, was the subject of a May 4 Media Matters for America analysis.