Surprise!

On Friday, I was all ready to call it a day for Senator Kerry. Bin Laden's tape was a bona fide October surprise, although I don't think Karl Rove engineered this one. At most, he heard about it a couple of minutes before al-Jazeera aired it.

The first thought that ran through my head was that bin Laden's face reminds everyone that we are embroiled in a "war" on "terror." With American's still giving the nod to Bush for fighting that war (we all know how I feel about this -- American's seem to like fighting the war, but not actually winning it) anything that reminds them of the war would give Bush the edge. I went to bed a very depressed person.

But I woke up the next morning thinking that maybe this really would shock Americans. After all, you never see his face or hear his name (well, not until Kerry reminded Bush and the media), so maybe this would remind undecideds (apparently >1% is still undecided) of the abyssmal job Bush has done? I was invigorated. I went for a run.

I came back in, turned on the television, especially CNN, CNBC, Fox and Bloomberg, because they are American owned. That was important because I wanted to see how American media, which influences Americans far more than the BBC does, was handling it. Well, they were reluctant to mention it, probably because they didn't know how it would affect the candidates. The candidates mentioned it very little. They both had their little statements, but both camps have, again, reluctant to mention it.

The only real talk about it has sidestepped the issue. Bush and Co. is complaining that Kerry used it as political ammo. He is a seedy opportunist, a "Monday morning quarterback" who will say anything to get elected. That sure is a crock, if you ask me. Why shouldn't he exploit the fact that Bush failed to get bin Laden while we still had capable forces in Afghanistan? That was the whole point. Bush must be held accountable for these sorts of things.

So, in the end, I really don't know how it will all pan out.