Reuters: Could an 'October surprise' shape U.S. election?

[ECH1969]

A last-minute "October surprise" -- a dramatic news event that shakes up the U.S. election -- could be a wild card in the final three weeks of the fight for control of Congress.

With Democrats threatening to sweep Republicans out of power in Congress in the Nov. 7 elections, a late-breaking foreign crisis, terrorist attack or another Washington scandal could change the debate and shape the ultimate outcome.

The possibilities are numerous, as President George W. Bush juggles multiple foreign threats like North Korea's nuclear tests, Iran's nuclear ambitions and civil war in Iraq, along with mushrooming Republican scandals at home.

"It should come as no surprise if the Bush administration undertakes a pre-emptive war against Iran sometime before the November election," Gary Hart, a former Democratic senator and presidential candidate, predicted last month on the Huffington Post, an Internet site. In many scenarios, the man imagined to be pulling the strings on an October surprise is White House political adviser Karl Rove, the architect of Bush's 2004 re-election.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-10-17T165629Z_01_N17316698_RTRIDST_0_USA-POLITICS-SURPRISE.XML

[villager]

1. So this article is begging the GOP to concoct such a "surprise?"

n/t

[fooj]

2. This is pathetic. IMO, treasonous.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Woohoo!! Karl Rove resigns!

That's about the only hope they have left to change things in a positive direction.

[BOSSHOG]

4. The vote of a rational citizen will not be changed by anything

bush does and rove knows it. He's wondering what he can do to excite the ignorant trash base which should be tried as co defendants when the bush administration goes on trial for crimes against humanity and the constitution.

[jsamuel]

5. and said surprise would help Repubs? why that assumption?

[cyberpj]

6. the saddest part is that US minds will only remember the latest event -

- and forget about the years of events past.

Just call us the "short attention span country".

[greeneyedboy]

7. pathetic "horse race" reporting of the worst kind.

hello, this is not a show--this is about the survival of life on the planet.

[radfringe]

8. just a thought

but with all the talking about an october surprise being sprung on us by Rove - could it be that the biggest surprise is that there will be no surprise?

could the fall FOLEYage have caused rove's surprise to go off course? we're they planning on using NK nuke test as the booga-booga of the month? then there's the terrorist attack that wasn't (last week's plane crash).

Saddam's verdict is due - but the only surprise there would be if saddam's found innocent, and that would reflect very poorly on the repubs...

Attack Iran? possible, but on what pretext? Bomb Iran because NK has nukes? isn't that why we invaded Iraq - because the terrorists were in afghanistan?

well - whatever it is, it's gotta happen in this week or early next to get maximum airtime