This will not help Bush--reminds me of something from 1980

[WI_DEM]

In 1980, the Iranian Hostage crisis was brewing and many "pundits" thought if President Carter could get the hostages home before the election it would help him. Here is what happened to that good and honorable man. In 1980, as I recall it, in the last weekend, there was a "breakthrough" if certain condidtions would be meant--the hostages would come home. Carter cancelled his weekend campaign activities and went back to the WH where he studied the developments, then he held a press conference and said pretty much that while things were encouraging--he couldn't accept all they wanted.

Well, going into the weekend, Carter was picking up strength in polls he lost during the final debate when this happened. It got the entire country thinking about the hostages again and how they had been prisoners for about a year. Carter lost momentum and beginning that Sunday his poll numbers sank and we know the rest.

This bin-Laden tape is not a "October Surprise" which helps Bush because it reminds the American people of what Kerry has been stating all along--if we hadn't diverted attention from Afghanistan, there is a good chance Bin-Laden would not still be at large.

IMO, this helps bolster Kerry's arguments and is a set back for Bush.

[clover]

1. YES!!!!! thanks for jogging my memory; great comparison(nt)

[WI_DEM]

2. yep, foreign policy issues are often dicey late in a campaign

like this.

[Goathead]

3. More like 1984

Osama Bin Laden is exactly like the fictional character of Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's 1984. He was brought out on the television screen to insight fear and anger amongst the populace, it turned out that he didn't even exist.

[GreenPoet64]

4. I agree . . . it helps Kerry.

[demzilla]

5. Yeah, I thought of 1980 also

and how people just got disgusted with Carter's inability to free the hostages.

This MAY help Kerry, or be a wash: depends on how Kerry responds.

[MrBenchley]

6. I can't see how pResident Shrimp can even comment on the tape

without reminding the country of his little "I know Osama attacked us" snit during the debates...and the FACT that he hasn't mentioned Bin Laden since the debates.