Baghdadi’s death and America’s pre-election techniques

Muazz Mohamed

Some people are linking between US President Donald Trump’s declaration of the death of ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on October 27 and the next presidential elections in the US, which is slated for November next year.

Political battle

On October 28, the American news network CNN published a report titled “With Baghdadi gone, a political battle is just beginning”.

It said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is gone, like his short-lived Islamic caliphate. But the battle to claim credit for his death is just beginning.

President Donald Trump rightfully gets to trumpet the special forces raid that killed the ISIS leader in Syria, just as he would have carried the can had it been a disaster, it added.

It noted that Democrats have been slow to praise, but they might remember how they embraced the killing of Osama bin Laden during Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.

“Bin Laden is dead, General Motors is alive,” then-vice president, now 2020 candidate, Joe Biden used to crow.

The network noted that Baghdadi’s death could not have come at a better time, offering Republicans rare good news to rally around, amid devastating revelations from the impeachment inquiry and fury over Trump’s desertion of the Syrian Kurds.

Given the President’s propensity for spinning tall tales, the raid – which he has already likened to a movie — will likely take on even more mythical proportions in the months to come, letting the President play the ruthless, square-jawed war leader, CNN said.

It added that in the end, the political impact is likely to be negligible.

Trump so polarizes opinion that the raid is unlikely to move many votes next year, CNN said.

Obama’s approval ratings ticked up for just a few weeks after the far more notorious bin Laden’s death, before settling back to normal, it added.

It noted that while any rise in Trump’s ratings could be significant since public opinion is crucial to shaping the outcome of the impeachment fight, it’s a good bet that the honeymoon will soon be drowned out by Trump’s impeachment misery — and his own compulsion to ignite new controversies.