Bin Laden Death Will Not Boost Obama: Expert
By: The euphoric scenes that met the death of Osama Bin Laden will not boost President Barack Obama’s re-election hopes, according to Alastair Newton, a political analyst at Nomura in London.
“The immediate reaction in the US notwithstanding, 'normal business' will soon be resumed in US politics. There will be no change on the fiscal/debt polarization and contrary to some commentators' reaction, definitely no election boost for Obama,” said Newton in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.
With little or no operational control over al-Qaeda in recent years, Newton believes Osama’s death will have little impact on the terror group’s ability to mount attacks.
“Bin Laden’s role as head of al-Qaeda seems to have been largely symbolic for some years now, he was not responsible for operational planning and decision-making,” he added.
Following the brief rally on news of Bin Laden’s death, stocks gave up gains and Newton told CNBC that he agrees with the market reaction.
“There is no readily identifiable substantive reason for the market rally which the announcement of his bin Laden’s death triggered,” he said.
“The US and UK authorities, among others, are, in my view, wise to warn of a possible increase in the terrorist threat and of a possible civil unrest threat to western embassies etc in some countries, the terrorism risk may rise,” Newton added.
