When will Bush pick up Bin Laden?

Several sources in intelligence have said that US Forces have had Osama in their sights for months now. So bets are on as to when Bush will magically capture Bin Laden. It's a given it will happen before the next election. But now some people are warning Bush not to make it too obvious, or the people will be turned off.

Some months ago, Madeleine Albright told Morton Kondracke offstage of her belief that Bush's team had Bin Laden at the ready and would announce his capture when it was politically expedient. Albright later tried to pass her comment off as a joke, but Kondracke said ""She was not smiling when she said this."

She is not alone. A Reuter's article today contains this information:

The Sunday Express said last month U.S. and British special forces had bin Laden "boxed in" to a 10-square-mile area north of the Pakistani city of Quetta. Pakistani officials laughed off the report.

Later in February, Iranian radio said bin Laden was captured in a tribal area of Pakistan. A senior U.S. defence official described the report as "another piece of stray voltage".

Many Afghans are convinced bin Laden is already in U.S. custody, waiting to be wheeled out closer to November when George W. Bush runs for re-election.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan has made surprisingly confident predictions that he will be caught or killed by the end of the year.

If you don't know where he is, how can you predict he'll be caught by the end of the year? If you know you can get him later, why not get him now? The only answer that makes sense is the one that supports the speculation - save him for when it's most politically expedient.