Regina C. Schwartz ’06, president of Harvard Students for Howard Dean, said that she hopes the capture does not help Bush politically.

“I hope the American people won’t use this false portrayal of American heroism as a show of the United States’ justification for going into Iraq,” Schwartz said.

Andrew J. Frank ’05, president-elect of the Harvard College Democrats, said that the Democratic candidates will benefit from failed American efforts in Iraq.

“Bush and the Republicans are still going to have to deal with the fact that they screwed up the occupation,” he said.

But Frank also said that U.S. presidential candidate Howard B. Dean might suffer politically from Saddam’s capture.

“Sen. [Joseph I.] Lieberman, D-Conn.—I’m not sure about the other candidates—are going to use this to attack Howard Dean,” Frank said. “Sen. Lieberman has already said that if Howard Dean were president Saddam Hussein would still be in power.”

Any politician who can take advantage of Saddam’s capture may have a base of exuberant Americans to tap into.

“I was elated,” said Carter. “If they allowed people to fire AK-47s into the air in Winchester, Mass., and if I had one, I might have been tempted.”

“They don’t allow that in Winchester,” he added.

—Associated Press material was used in the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Joshua D. Gottlieb can be reached at jdgottl@fas.harvard.edu.