AlQeda attack would have the effect of giving Bush the "fear" ammunition he needs to get McCain into the White House. Attacks rally the people around the flag and the goverment. If we were attacked, Bush would Blame the Dems. So would McCain...for undercutting Bush's security efforts. McCain would also be able to hit home his rediculous talking point on the dangerous simplicity of Democrat policy. If anything, the reality is the reverse of what McCain is arguing and the factg that he doesn't see the realpolitic implications of an attack before the election means that he hasn't crossed Hillary's C&C threshold.

this theme repeated right through election day. This will be the real test of the American Electorate and what they have learned over the past 8 years.

he's obviously learned to play off their stupidity. Of course these are the same people who still believe that Saddam was behind 9/11, that Al-Queda has some sort of navy to actually get to the United States, and that no matter how small the town they live in, it will still be targetted for a terrorist attack.

With Dems having large advantages in fund-raising, turn-out and poll numbers, whoever the Dem candidate will be favored over McCain, therefore the only impact one could have to CHANGE the GE dynamic would be to PUT McCain into office, not prevent. Statements like this, completely at odds with known reality are just like those from the Bush Admin and the HRC campaign.

"But an ocean of hard truths before them -- such as what did it say about U.S. policies that bin Laden would want Bush reelected -- remained untouched.

'It was sad,' Mowatt-Larssen remembered. 'We just sat there. We were dispirited. We had nothing left at that point.'"

And about 5 seconds later, the Republican fax machines started spinning with the claims that Bin Laden was trying to help John Kerry. And a lot of true believers in the die-hard 25% still think that.

...So thin that any American should be able to see through it. Transparent Baloney, what a great mixed metaphor!

So, if Iraq gets quiet, McCain wants us to vote for him because the Surge worked... And if Iraq flares up, McCain wants us to vote for him because we need another Surge.

Better to vote for anybody other than McCain, and let Iraq go. Worst case scenario: Iraq degenerates into another Somalia. So what? Does anybody wish we still were in Somalia? Let Iran send their soldiers and Marines to die in Iraq. So what? That probably would be the best way to deal with "The Iranian Threat." (tm) Get out of Iraq, and let the Iranians get bogged down there.

Why shouldn't they? Bush has been doing a better job of wrecking the U.S. than al-Qaida ever could have, and McCain has pretty much promised to continue Bush's policies.

So if the violence in Iraq goes up, we have to vote for MaCain to spite the terrorists, and if the violence goes down we have to vote for MaCain, because the plan is working so well... I just wanted to be sure I had that clear.

Hands up: how many people expect new a bin Laden video to "suddenly" crop up a week or so before the election?

he worried that al-Qaida and other groups in Iraq would step up their attacks there in order to influence the general election

Well, seeing as how a large part of the reason we are in Iraq was so that Bush could win "re-election..."

The biggest weapon the GOP has today in American politics is fear. Another major attack would vastly increase that fear, and the GOP would roundly decry that they could have stopped the attack if only the weak-kneed Democrats would have let us torture people, and spy on US citizens and conduct strip searches of every airline passenger, and on and on ad nauseum.

The terrorists may be crazy, but they're not stupid. If, as McCain and his cohorts postulate, al Qaida wants a Democrat in the White House, the last thing they would do is stage another attack before the election.

Now, here's where the GOP logic really goes 'round the bend. There has never been a greater recruitment tool for bin Laden and his rabid gang than GW Bush's debacle in Iraq. The last thing they want is for us to withdraw and make peace with the Arab world.

So McCain is right -- and of course absolutely wrong at the same time: the terrorists might want to influence the election here, but it would not be to defeat him, but to assure his election, so that they could continue to use US troops as bomb targets in a hostile desert, instead of the US using a newly freed-up military to actually pursue al Qaida at its source.

I think that my biggest fear about this election is that there will be a terrorist attack during the general election campaign. Based on past behaviour, I believe that Americans would immediately turn in droves to the candidate who has the best "experience" credentials. Clinton would stand a slim chance of holding up to McCain under these circumstances (mostly because she would have her husband by her side). Obama would not stand a chance. I can only hope that McCain is just posturing to gain votes and that he isn't really the warmonger his recent speeches make him out to be, because if he continues to respond to terrorist attacks with violence we will continue the downward spiral into oblivion that BushCo has started us on.

The surge is working. But no, it's not really working, it's just that Al-Qaeda is waiting for the right moment to spring back into action, so that Americans can see that the surge ISN'T working, in which case they won't want to elect John McCain?

Is the senile dementia setting in on poor old Mac already?

would those "intercepts" not be classified and why the hell is he repeating them? [well, we know why, of course. Dumb question]. He's so full of shit.... what did I see someone call it? The Stray Talk Excess... ah yes.....