WALTER CRANKCASE
"America's most trusted man" is at it again. According to Drudge, Walter Cronkite is engaging in speculation of the far-out-in-left-field-kind.

Former CBSNEWS anchorman Walter Cronkite believes Bush adviser Karl Rove is possibly behind the new Bin Laden tape.

Cronkite made the startling comments late Friday during an interview on CNN.

Somewhat smiling, Cronkite said he is "inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing."

Interviewer Larry King did not ask Cronkite to elaborate on the provocative election eve observation.

That's all we need from this legend of "journalism", more fuel for the fires being tended by the tin-foil hat crowd. I can't believe that Cronkite is dumb enough to believe this bullshit (the possiblity of senility notwithstanding), and I can't believe that he doesn't know the kind of harm his endorsement of such looney-toon conspiracy theories does.

So, tell us Walter, was Ho Chi Minh behind this?

Just back from Saigon, (Cronkite) rejected the official forecast of victory, predicting instead that it seemed "more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate."

I hear that Uncle Ho was "a very clever man" too.