War on Terror Over-- Kanye Wins!

This is old news by now, but I'd like to point out that Kanye West won the War on Terror for us. It should come as no surprise that West, the only American straight-up balla enough to say on national television what everyone else was thinking-- "George Bush doesn't care about black people"-- has led us to victory over the fundamentalist ideologues attempting to overwhelm the American psyche. Props to West for remaining hardcore thug in front of the terrorists while keeping his fresh-to-death, high-end preppie style. The sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks passed this month amid a flurry of events that would concern any red-blooded American: Congress extracted tense testimonials about the Iraq war from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the President rebuffed his detractors in a live address to the nation, and the elusive Osama bin Laden released another video (apparently after a nice trip to his neighborhood Pashtun salon).

But the terrorists don't seem to be winning this war to control the hearts and minds of Americans-- a New York Times/CBS poll conducted the first week of September shows that for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, there are as many Americans who think an imminent attack on U.S. soil is not likely as there are who think an attack is likely.

Yet while bin Laden's tape may not have elicited that much fear, President Bush didn't seem to pique much interest with his address to the nation, either. According to Nielsen Media Research, President Bush's Sept. 13 speech drew in 28.8 million viewers. This sounds like a lot (at least to me, anyways), but it is a paltry number compared to the 42.4 million who tuned in to watch Bush propose a troop surge in Iraq on Jan. 10. Furthermore, on CBS-- which had the highest number of viewers watching the speech, at 6.9 million-- the speech was just about the least popular program of the night. 8.8 million people decided to watch an episode of Big Brother 8, which was on before the speech, and 9.12 million people tuned in after the speech to watch part of a rerun of CSI and a rerun of Without a Trace. Hmm.

So if people weren't too concerned with Osama bin Laden or President Bush on Sept. 11, who were they interested in listening to? KANYE WEST. In a true showdown between two American heavyweights, Kanye West and 50 Cent both dropped their albums on Sept. 11, to see who could garner the highest record sales and thereby prove themselves the better MC (let's forget about proving that by, sayyy, rapping). Kanye had knockout sales reaching nearly one million. On top of that, 1.3 million viewers watched a Sept. 11 showdown between West and 50 on BET's 106 & Park. That is a considerable number for a cable network; it is 89 percent higher than the channel's average viewership on Tuesdays this season so far.

With all of this in mind, one can only reach the conclusion that Kanye West now has a more powerful grip over American life than the president or the terrorists. Congratulations, Kanye, and thank you for making us forget about the terrorists.