Will another OBL tape magically surface days before the election?

[StraightDope]

And if it does materialize out of "nowhere", will the American electorate be naive enough to buy it?

Opinions, please!

[xultar]

1. I hope a tape shows up. I dare them to do it. Buhwawawa!

[asthmaticeog]

2. On a RW discussion board somewhere:

"Will another alleged GOP child predator magically surface days before the election?"

I'm just saying, keep your perspective. The same old shit from their apparently limited bag of tricks seems like it could lose a lot of its punch while their evil and their hubris are in the middle of very publicly biting them on the ass. I'm far more worried about vote manipulation than fear manipulation this year, but then, I live in Ohio. :shrug:

[lostnfound]

4. I worry about 2 things

vote manipulation / disenfranchisement (esp. due to new rules in many states + shenanigans with falsely filed reg's such as in TN), and something far bigger than an OBL tape.

Get a big event happening, and they'll have cover for another stolen election.

[StClone]

5. I fear the vote too

If you look at the races, time left to honestly influence the election, we have the edge. What they have is an alarming capability and motivation to win undemocratically

[Ecumenist]

3. I not only expect that to happen

I have even a stronger feeling that Osama and Friends will roll out a paid membership club for their monthly videos for our viewing pleasure. The late night infomercials won't being until late next week.

[StClone]

6. Actually if that occurs

It will kill the Rs. It will be obvious they want the Pigs to remain in power.

[Ecumenist]

9. Indeed StClone, indeed...

This is so disgusting....

[sofa king]

7. The question is whether it's going to be new or a Tupac remix.

Recall back in September, Rove & Co. were beating the bullshit terra drum and then triumphantly announced the arrest of The New Number Two in Iraq.

Then it came out The New Number Two was actually arrested in June, and that he was probably a messenger boy, not a leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Having seen these monkeyshines before, I cynically said:

Aww, how come they told us early? I wanted to hear about this on November 1, just before the Osama tape comes out.

About thirty hours later, the new Osama tape came out.

However, that tape had problems. It had a high (read: American psyops) production value and appeared to be cobbled together from older but previously unseen footage. After about a day, most news organizations dropped it like a hot brick and it has not been heard of since.

On September 27, the ABC News producer in Pakistan got a call at home from a Taliban representative, saying that Osama was not dead of typhoid and that yet another tape might arise to prove it.

I think it's a given that we'll be seeing another tape. Osama works for George Bush. That relationship might be formal, as John Ashcroft's cover-up of the financial relationship between the GOP, Jack Abramoff, and al Qaeda suggests, or Osama might just be an astute fellow who realizes he can pick his enemies, and no enemy could possibly be stupider or more incompetent than the Bush Administration.

[emanymton]

8. Do Wild Bears Sh!t In The Woods?

And it will be authenticated by the same people who brought you all the other faulty information before.

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. probably.....

but, if you recall, shortly after the 911 anniversary they released a 5 yr. old tape of a 911 conspirator (with no audio), and it was almost laughable, because noone knew what the hell they were saying. it didn't pack quite the wallop i think they were hoping for. people are onto this cabal, and everything they do at this point just makes them seem desparate & calculating.

i think i heard on stephanie miller that nearly 70% of the american public thinks that gas prices are being manipulated for the mid-terms. this administration and the g.o.p. have pretty much turned 2/3 of the voting public into major cynics, because they have been caught in lie after lie after lie. They've lost any credibility they ever had, if they ever had any.

[MADem]

14. And to make matters worse, Atta looked twenty years younger!

He looked like he was waiting to sign up for college classes, not reading his "last testament" as they averred.

That was the LAMEST thing ever. And those images weren't taken with 16 mm silent film...they were taken with video. I mean, what is the probability that the idiot taking the pictures had a faulty camera, or had somehow 'unplugged' the microphone? Every video I have EVER taken, and I'm no Ansel Adams in the lens department, has managed to have audio with it. Even when I've forgotten to turn the damn camera off, and taken pictures of feet and sidewalks. Usually you hear yourself saying something shitty about someone on these sorts of images!!!!

So ya gotta ask yourself, cui bono? Why no audio? Audio would be HELPFUL if Atta was saying the "right" things, wouldn't it? How did that audio get stripped away? If there WAS no audio, why not say "Ooooops, take TWO!!" They didn't CHECK? Come on.....

Perhaps it said something that didn't "scare" us sufficiently, or indicated that perhaps the government of one of our allies (*cough*Pakistan*cough*) might have been a little more helpful to the cause than heretofore realized?????

[C_U_L8R]

11. Osama is the only hope for Republicans

they've got nothing else...
and technically speaking.. they don't have Osama either

[salin]

12. after the NIE reports... I think such a tape would work against the GOP.

Would sorta make an echo for the reports that the war in Iraq a) cut resources for the war on terra terra terra, and b) that obl's recruiting efforts have been more successful as a result of the Iraq war.

Rather undercuts the GOP theme of "only we can keep you safe..."

[radfringe]

13. counting on it

what's a (s)election without a bin-laden tape?

[StraightDope]

15. Indeed...