ALAS, THE OCTOBER SURPRISE

What else could it have been except a new Bin Laden tape? (I wonder how long they had it before they chose to release it...) Key statement by Osama: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked." Do not let this quote fool you into thinking that CNN is being impartial in its reporting of the story, for the rest of the cnn.com article makes it seem as if Bin Laden would prefer that Kerry become president. One of the subsections of this piece -- titled "Bin Laden Criticizes Bush"-- describes how Osama was shocked at learning about Bush's slow response in the first moments after the towers were hit. Well, I guess he also liked Fahrenheit 9/11. Since the republicans can't put any of Bin Laden's words into Michael Moore's mouth, what better way to win the election than to put Michael Moore's words into Osama's mouth? No one here speaks Arabic, so who's going to notice? And then the 'liberal' media will say "see?! liberals and terrorists think exactly alike! If you had any doubts about whether or not Bin Laden is a democrat or a republican, look no further than this, his vile attempt to influence OUR elections. My fellow Americans, are you going to let this TERRORIST coax you into picking YOUR next leader? How dare he?! He must be criticizing Bush because he knows that if there is any administration capable of hunting him down it is that of King George and his Knights. Osama WANTS you to pick Kerry so that he can get away, Kerry being such a wuss and what not."

More importantly, this whole frenzie brings the issue of national security to the forefront, pushing jobs and the economy to the back burner -- anything that achieves this helps Bush. In addition, the article drops this small hint:

A U.S. government official said that based on initial analysis of the new bin Laden tape, "There have not been discussions about raising the nation's security posture or threat level.

Hmm...I wonder if we'll be under any terrorist alerts on election day. Well, that certainly won't affect our voter turn out, right my fellow Americans? Being told that you might be vaporized by a mini-nuke on your way to the polls won't influence your decision to participate in one, tiny election, will it? I hope not.