Like a shot in the arm to a rickets victim, Vitamin B — Bin Laden — has been administered to the eternally repetitious posturing bodies of the US presidential candidates just in time to enliven their flagging performances. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day. Bin Laden pops up to pose the threat that Bush needs to continue being the World Policeman; Kerry, in an effort to assume Bush’s role, has stern words, claiming that he will stop at nothing to rid the world of terrorism.

There is nothing like a terrorist threat to concentrate a severely stretched attention span. At least it got Bush and Kerry off the front pages. Political bombshell that it certainly is, Bin Laden’s broadcast was fortuitously timed. A campaign manager could not have timed it better.

Given the 58,000 postal balloting forms lost in the mail in Florida — it just had to be Florida — a distinctly unpleasant odor was beginning to seep out from that state. In the 2000 election, there was chaos and confusion when many serving soldiers’ votes were rejected, and now with 160,000 in Iraq alone and the presidential race as close as it is, both candidates need every vote they can get. Bush is decorously trying not to notice the possible criminal charges being leveled at his pal Dick Cheney’s former company, Halliburton. Bush, as president, has been riding the terror steed for three years, justifying bombing, invasion of two countries and personal privacy in the search for the world’s most wanted man. Draconian laws — the Homeland Security Bill, for example — allow the invasion of the privacy of the US citizen as never before, right down to the checking of what books he may have withdrawn from his local library.

It is axiomatic among marketing gurus that “fear sells.” Remember the Armageddon that was to follow the turn of the millennium when computers would supposedly cease to function? Any amount of “curative” software was sold on the back of that.

At exactly the right moment, Bin Laden appears on the scene. What was he thinking of? He appears to realize that John Kerry is not adopting a very different stance from Bush in the war on terror declared by President Bush. His statement resonates with the current democratic frenzy of voting, the expression of the power of the people, a subtle move.

“Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands,” said Bin Laden on the edited tape released by Al-Jazeera. “Each and every state that does not tamper with our security will automatically assure its own security.”

Given that the two candidates are officially committed to continuing the war on terror, it is hard to see what effect Bin Laden’s statement will have, save to polarize and perhaps crystallize wavering voters’ opinions toward one candidate or the other. One of many possible results this might have is that it will re-elect Bush with the fear factor operating together with “the devil you know” principle in the supporting role.

Alternatively, as the appeal is both to the American people and to those of other countries interested in their own “security,” it could cause the vote to swing behind Kerry as a man who presents himself as less of a committed warrior and as something of a thinker and negotiator.

With no presidential track record of poor decision-making or umbilical connections to institutions of great power and wealth to help or mar his appeal, Kerry could seem a viable option.

Bin Laden’s strategy as outlined in his address is two-fold. First, to pressure the US and its allies to withdraw from the Muslim world and by implication withdraw support from Israel and second, to remove the Arab rulers he opposes.

“We did not find it difficult to deal with Bush and his administration because it is similar to regimes in our countries, half of which are governed by the military and the other half of which are governed by the sons of kings and presidents,” he said. “In both categories, you find many who are characterized by hubris, arrogance, greed, and unlawful acquisition of money.”

If John Kerry is elected, he will be saddled with the recent US legislation that ties a country’s relations with the US according to the country’s attitude to Jews. The bill, known as the Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, was introduced by Democratic Representative Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor in the US Congress, in response to recent acts of anti-Semitism in Europe and the Middle East. The bill was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives by agreement and voice vote late last week although the State Department objected.

The bill creates a special office within the department that would document anti-Semitic abuses and contrive ways of countering them. Under the legislation, the State Department will produce an annual report on anti-Semitism around the world and publish it as part of its annual review of human rights. Bin Laden will certainly take exception to that gauntlet’s being thrown down.