From an article posted on CNN.com regarding studies on how fear shapes voters' views:

…volunteers were aged from 18 into their 50s and described themselves as ranging from liberal to deeply conservative. No matter what a person's political conviction, thinking about death made them tend to favor Bush, [Sheldon] Solomon [a social psychologist who specializes in terrorism] said. Otherwise, they preferred Kerry.

"I think this should concern anybody," Solomon said. "If I was speaking lightly, I would say that people in their, quote, right minds, unquote, don't care much for President Bush and his policies in Iraq."

He wants voters to be aware of psychological pressures and how they are used.

"If people are aware that thinking about death makes them act differently, then they don't act differently."

Is this surprising? Perhaps people favor Bush when they think about death less because they think he can delay their own than because Bush and Death have been fairly close friends over the years. Remember this famous little sound-bite from the 2000 debates:

"…guess what's going to happen to them?" Bush said, smiling. "They'll be put to death".

Or what about those unprecedented 152 executions while governor of Texas? And who could forget that remarkable State of the Union address of January 28, 2003:

All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way -- they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.

If you're sober, that probably sounded like a implicit admission that the President of the United States endorsed and engaged the wholesale execution of people without even the faintest pretext of due process or the rule of law. It doesn't sound like that to me, however, because I'm drunk – drunk on Patriot Porn!