WP/Milbank: Impact Of October Surprise Uncertain

[kskiska]

Candidates Try to Spin It Their Way

With two days to spare, the October Surprise arrived yesterday, but it was not the type either campaign had in mind.

Instead, it was America's most loathed enemy, injecting himself into Tuesday's election -- not with the bombs that preceded the elections in Spain but with a videotape taunting President Bush, Democratic nominee John F. Kerry and Americans generally.

(snip)

Republicans have long insinuated, and occasionally asserted, that bin Laden favors Kerry's election, so it must have come as a relief to Kerry's campaign that bin Laden ended his denunciation of Bush with a dismissal of the Democrat, as well.

Still, Kerry adviser Mike McCurry appeared unusually somber as he told reporters that the candidate would proceed with the campaign as if the tape had not appeared. "It's very important for us to move forward. We're in the closing days of the campaign. We're going ahead and doing our events as we would." Pressed for more, he responded with uncharacteristic brevity: "We gave the reaction right now to you that he wanted to give."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10553-2004Oct29.html

[Swamp Rat]

1. He's been hanging out in Crawford...

[Carolab]

2. This is SO assinine

The Bush team got together in Crawford and said, okay, let's have an October Surprise brainstorming session. What'll it be? And they came up with this.

[diamond14]

3. PHOTO....from plastic_turkeys.....OBL......

[goforit]

4. I guess Mr. Rove was desparate.

[Davis_X_Machina]

5. It ain't 'uncertain' to me...

The absolute perversity, the sheer stupidity of Bush's policy WRT Iraq is only highlighted by the tape.

Here's OBL calling out the President.

This is what 'safer, because we removed Saddam' looks like?

This is what 'our victory in Iraq, the most important front in the War on Terror' gets us?

Bush *is* the war in Iraq, fought by his choice, at a time of his choosing, against his chosen enemy.

Iraq is the centerpiece of this administration's terrorist policy.

And the mind-numbing irrelevance of the whole fiasco is thrown into even starker relief by the reappearence of OBL.

[Voltaire99]

6. Bin Laden laughs at Bush reading 'My Pet Goat'

You know, it's damn scary when your nation's worst enemy is cleverer than its president.