2004 Election: Inside The War Rooms

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But would Kerry keep to the high ground? The Bush campaign was betting that he wouldn't, and it didn't take long to find what they needed to put their indignation on speed dial. The Bush campaign's rapid-response team discovered remarks Kerry had made to a local Wisconsin TV station during those interviews by satellite, reiterating the criticism he had been making for months that Bush had let bin Laden slip away at Tora Bora. The Bushies cried foul and had Bush do so in his last speech of the day. "It's the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking," said Bush. "It is especially shameful in the light of a new tape from America's enemy." But did Americans agree, or was the tape a reminder of Bush's failure to catch the murderer he had once vowed to bring in dead or alive? Some polls showed a mild boost for the President when voters were asked if the video had pushed them toward a candidate, and who knows? Perhaps bin Laden did help give the President another four years. --With reporting by Perry Bacon Jr. and James Carney/ Washington