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OCTOBER 26, 2006 – In 2000, Bush
and company grumbled: How dare info about his previous DUI
conviction be released in October. This "October Surprise" was
a dirty trick by an amoral Al Gore, they claimed.
Then, in the following elections, the
Bush administration made standard work of creating October surprises
via manipulation of world affairs - in particular, the use of the
War in Iraq.
In 2002, George W. Bush told the UN that
the vote on whether or not to pass the resolution that would lay the
groundwork for an invasion had to occur... you guessed it, the very
week of the mid-term elections.
Then, in 2004, there was Fallujah, the
assault - which was, of course, announced the week before the
election - which, as reported by every media outlet, would "break
the back" of the insurgency - only if Bush was re-elected.
(See our story:
NEVER FORGET FALLUJAH)
So now we are here in 2006, and we all
know what will occur. And, as we
reported previously,
the plan this time is to use the sentencing of Saddam Hussein as
this year's Fallujah, to try and create a temporary illusion that
our incursion into Iraq has been successful and fruitful.
Yes, there was a planned October
surprise. Though the first trial of Saddam ended way back in
June, the court put off the sentencing until just weeks before the
election. We, the Bush administration decided, should continue
to pay to house and care for this man and put off justice - that
justice that couldn't wait past election week 2002 - until, well, it
was time to try and sway another election.
So, it being a bit past mid-October, you
may now be wondering what happened to this planned October
"surprise."
Well, things have gotten so bad for Bush
and the GOP, and so bad in Iraq, that they have had to take the
desperate action of changing their October surprise into - if you
can imagine - a November surprise. Not just in November - but
on November 5, exactly 2 days before the mid-term elections.
(see
Reuters article)
Obvious is something the Bushies,
obviously, don't shy away from. This is such an obvious,
pathetic ploy to sway an election that if they had any dignity left
even they would be ashamed to do it.
But beyond all this, this change is
really telling.
What this change says is that Bush, Rove
and friends realized that things are now so bad in Iraq, and that
they have told the American people so many times that things are
about to get better, that within a week of the verdict against
Saddam being passed, the temporary bump in the polls would be erased
by the realization that sentencing Saddam didn't help anything.
And yet, such news always provides at
least a temporary bump in the polls.
And so, Bush, Rove and company decided
to take no chances and to ensure that their planned November
"surprise" happens so close to the election that the temporary bump
it creates won't have time to wear off.
It is virtually guaranteed that toting
out Saddam and giving him a harsh sentence will give the GOP
somewhere between a 3-5 percent momentary bump. Within a week
or so - after violence possibly escalates, at the very least doesn't
wane - the bump would have been gone.
But with the verdict now set to be
announced on the Sunday before the election, the bounce will still
be there come election day, and will drown out paid for ads by
Democratic candidates. And the reality is, as Rove and friends
know too well, that a change of just 1-3 percent will absolutely
tilt some close races.
That is what they are counting on, and
why Saddam continues to be fed and housed by your tax payer dollars
rather than having been sentenced and punished months ago, as he
should have been.
The Democrats really don't want to call
the GOP on this in advance because it would change the topic from
Foley, Iraq violence, etc. to Saddam being captured, the last thing
they want to do. Ideally, the will prepare to counterattack
strongly and swiftly on in November when the story breaks and use
the disgrace that such a ploy is to have the act backfire on the
GOP.
For now, this is it - the best the GOP
can come up with. No talk about how to fix Social Security
this election, if you haven't noticed, or how they fixed it this
last two years. Nothing about prescription drugs or how
they've improved nothing about that in six years. Nothing
about jobs, nothing about health care, and nothing about fixing
Iraq.
No, like with the Mission Accomplished
sign, the fake turkey run of 2003, the UN ploy in 2002 and Fallujah
in 2004, all the GOP has is one last ditch attempt to create
temporary insanity in the electorate.
The reality is, though there will
absolutely be some bump if this plan is carried out, the American
public is so jaded on and sick of Bush lip service ploys that do
nothing to stop the killing of our young men and women and
bankrupting of our nation that the only bump that will come from
this will be one more on the forehead of a GOP that is about to go
down for the count.
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