Democrats Fear 'October Surprise'
 

Democrats Fear 'October Surprise'

Sat Oct 2, 9:54 PM ET


By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - In the presidential campaign's closing weeks, Democrats are bracing for an "October Surprise," an event so dramatic it could influence the election's outcome. The capture of Osama bin Laden, for instance.

It's part of American political lore: the party out of power worries about a last-minute surprise engineered by the party in power. Now that October has arrived and the election is just a month away, speculation is rife among Democrats that President Bush and political mastermind Karl Rove have some tricks up their sleeves.

"I assume that it will be something," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "We have to be ready for that."

Rest of article here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...tober_surprise

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Looks like Nancy Pelosi is now operating out of Washington's political gutter. The idea is absolutely rediculous, as far as orchestrating anything that has to do with the War on Terror.

People have been saying we have had Osama for awhile even as far back as last year and would say they caught him in October.

I doubt they have because someone would have leaked it by now. But if he is captured this month of all months a lot of people will wonder if the government held off to capture him til October for political gain. Even Republicans have to admit it may look fishy even if they believe thats not the case if Osama turns up this month.

Hmm.. preventative PR.

well- Iranian state radio reported back in the early spring that our forces captured him and Bush & Rumsfeld waiting for the right time to announce it.

And we all know how credible Iran's state radio is.

They are more credible than only CBS.

And since none of the other networks have picked this up ANYWHERE, I sincerely doubt the veracity of these claims.

It's pretty sad that they would "fear" something good happening. What about the common good?

October Surprise=2 Minute Drill

Cosign.

I'm going to spare y'all the political rhetoric. To "fear" the capture of bin Laden etal is repulsive.

This is like the moron girl who I know who said she hopes Osama isn't caught a few months ago because she doesn't want Bush to win.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

-Rudey
--I'd rather catch him and lose the election than not

Re: Democrats Fear 'October Surprise'
 

How brilliant, Nancy!! What depth, what insight! "I presume it will be something".
Duh. Must have been another of those "say anything cause the cameras are in your face" she is SO good at.
What a frickin idiot that woman is.

Its pretty sad that the Dems have placed themselves in the position where they only benefit in situations like this i.e. if America loses jobs..its good for Dems...if we catch bin laden before the election....bad for Dems...

If I were a Democrat..I'd be ashamed of my party..especially if Kerry was the best candidate they have to offer at this time.

I agree with all above. BUT, if were ever to come out that his capture or release of information was held up due to political reasons, everyone involved should be impeached or lose their jobs.

I think that the proper charge would be "treason," and the proper penalty would be death.

Oh, that might be going too far. Maybe just a caning.

Well, Dean was a better candidate but yeah...

I liked Dean a lot too. He's a great liberal.

He was the most viable candidate. Just like four years ago when the Republicans chose George Bush. John McCain was a much better canididate in every way but one: the ability to raise money. That made Bush more viable, for the Republicans, then. It makes Kerry more viable, for the Democrats, today.

If you were a Democrat I wouldn't be.

HTH.

Treason's a charge that is very difficult to prove; our founding fathers made it so in the Constitution. And 'purging the bloodline' of a traitor (killing the family, even though they had nothing to do with the crime) is expressly forbidden as well.

I can see they shoulda tried Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen for treason because of the extraordinary damage they did to national security, but they reached a plea-bargain deal with the Feds.

If such an 'October Surprise' occurred, and it was found to be politically motivated, you bet yer ass the Dems and most of the American public will be demanding the CinC be impeached, put on trial and shipped to Federal "Pound-Me-In-The-Ass" prison. Do not pass 'Go', do not collect your industrial-size issue jar of K-Y jelly!

You could get me to agree on this one any day of the week! My understanding is the ONLY reason they didn't get a firing squad (which I still think they should have gotten!) was that the Intelligence Community was afraid of what may have been compromised in a full blown trial. Bastages. The Walker family of spies almost singlehandedly caused the whole Pueblo incident.

Ditto with Boyce and Lee (The Falcon and the Snowman; both are now on parole), William Kampiles (sold a KH-11 spysat manual to the Russkies), among a few others... The intelligence community is absolutely shit-scared that their security lapses and intelligence failures will become dirty laundry aired in public.

But none gets my blood to boiling than the Walker family spy ring. They shoulda gotten hanging by piano wire from meathooks, much like Adolf Hitler did with the ringleaders of the July 20, 1944 bomb assassination plot against him. (Hitler was said to have watched a film of their slow, torturous execution.)

OMIGOSH!!!! You are the very first person who has ever brought this up to me!! I've been working on a screenplay on the July 20, 1944 plot for over a year, and I'm amazed how many people don't even know about the various plots to kill Hitler!

And a good friend of mine knows the daughter of the author of The Falcon and the Snowman, Robert Lindsay.

Oh, and I agree 100% about the Walkers. And Ames. And Hansson. And the ones we've never heard about!

One of my 'hobbies' is military history, World War II in particular.

Bit of trivia you can use: the street in which the German War Ministry in Berlin was located was once known as the Bendlerstrasse. After the war, it was renamed after Graf von Stauffenberg (the ringleader of the bomb plot), as Stauffenbergstrasse.

Generalfeldmarschall Rommel had no direct part in the bomb plot, though he was seriously considered in the running for a post in the new government, had the bomb plot succeeded. He was caught up in Hitler's revenge after the bomb plot, possibly because he was increasingly becoming more popular than Hitler. So, Rommel was given a choice: take cyanide and be given a hero's funeral or have him and his family suffer through a People's Court, the only sentence given being death.

Thank you for the info! I really, really need to visit Berlin!

Did you ever read The Berlin Diaries by Marie Vassilchikov? She was a White Russian Princess who worked in the Propaganda Department, and got involved in the plot via Adam Von Trott. What is so amazing to me is the contrast between her almost celebrity status, dancing the night away at one embassy or the other, and then having to crawl out of the bomb debris in the morning. It's a point of view that's rarely heard, and yet so interesting!

Any books suggestions?

Haven't read that particular book... but I'll keep it in mind to read it if I see it.

William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is probably one of the best (and concise) books about that dark period in German history. Harder to find is his other book Berlin Diary, a first hand account of living in Berlin as the CBS correspondent there during the rise of Nazi Germany and the early years of WW II.

A well-researched and concise history of the dreaded SS is The Order of the Death's Head by Heinz Höhne.

Rommel wasn't a nazi, and several times before D-Day he had urged Hitler to surrender, stating that the hold of territories gained by invasion would be bartering chips lost if an invasion succeeded. So I can see how he would be sympathetic to the plot and thus Hitler's need to eliminate him.

your intelligence comes out in each and everything you post.

I kinda thought the media blew his little scream out of proportion...the race would be much more interesting if Dean were running...

If I was as lacking in that faculty as you are, I don't know that I'd have the grace to compliment others.

Thanks! :cool:

You're correct on that regard. Rommel was never a member of the NSDAP (the acronym 'Nazi' was rarely used within Germany). He did command Hitler's Army escort and protection battalion at the beginning of the war. Along with that he was already a minor celebrity, having written Infanterie greift an ("Infantry Attacks" - his account of combat service in World War I; probably the best book on modern small-unit infantry tactics).

"If I were"

-RC
--Grammar police!

Hey you right-wing grammar fascist - it's was, because if you dropped the if...

"I was at the bank"

is correct, and

"I were at the bank"

makes you sound like you're a redneck.

go play now little girl :o

Nope - subjunctive

Awww Love Spell is angwy. :(

You hate me because I'm AmeriKKKan, right?

And Rob, I think this debate will have to be continued later because I still think I'm right.

nah, you're not even close dude - the "remove the if" thing is a very elementary way of grammar deconstruction, and it doesn't apply here. Peep this link here , I'm presuming you're using the 'if' clause as being contrary to fact, therefore I am correct.


If I were a better man, I would have taken courses that matter instead of modern english grammar (EN513).

I've read the first two (well, almost finished with The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich), but haven't heard of the third book. I'll trot on over to Amazon.com right now!

My understanding on Rommel was that those in charge of the July 20, 1944 plot kept lists of who was going to hold which position in the "new Germany", and he was fairly prominent on the lists. It was never confirmed whether or not he even knew about the list. That's part of The Berlin Diaries that I mentioned; Missie was the secretary for Adam von Trott, and kept copious notes on the plot in a secret shorthand, which she translated just prior to her death. She mentions all sorts of names of those involved, including the Bismarks.

According to your crazy rules, you are in fact right. :(

I would love to see Bin Laden captured.

But with that being said, if he's captured in any place OTHER than Iraq, then we wasted time, lives, and valuable resources. Bin Laden was teh main objective (well the first anyway) in our war against Terrorism and to set out sights somewhere else before capturing him was completely short-sighted. But I pray we can bottle him up and crush his organization.