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Campaigns Wary About October Surprise
Makoto916 writes "CNN.com has an article on how both campaigns are speculating on what the so called "October Surprise" is going to be. From the capture of Bin Laden, to the economy falling through the floor, just about everything is considered. "
What happenes to the election of a terrorist attack takes out George W?
...by the framers of the Constitution of the United States and by the authors of the 20th amendment which went into effect in 1933, and also by the authors of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.
That's not so much a conspiracy theory as it is high school civics class.
If the president dies -- including by assassination -- the vice president succeeds him. That's been a part of the system since day one, and it's been put to the test too many times.
The election is a separate question. If a presidential candidate dies after the nominating convention but before the election, that candidate's name remains on the ballot. If that candidate --now deceased --wins the election, the 20th amendment kicks in, which says that the vice president elect becomes president if the president elect dies before the inauguration.
This is also true if the president elect dies after winning the election but before being inaugurated.
And does anyone think that he hasn't already considered the possibility and planned for it?
Yes, it certainly has been
I write in my journal
> Osama bin Laden is dead.
...
What's scary is that Osama bin Laden has the capability to speak to us from the dead!
Because Colin Powell told a senate panel in 2003 that Osama bin Laden was still alive, and the hunt for him continues, although Bush has outsourced the search effort to Pakistan for some reason.
The fact is on September 17, 2001, Bush told the American people "I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" [Source: ABC News, Sept 17, 2001]
In March of 2003, Bush significantly reversed this position, saying, "I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important." [referenced in the Boston Globe, 6/5/2004]
Since then, Bush worked to forget Osama bin Laden, or at least get the American people to. As was reported in the Washington Post on Aug 12, 2004, since the beginning of 2003, Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden's name on only 10 occasions, but not at any length. In contrast, he mentioned Saddam Hussein's name on more then 300 occasions.
In fact, during the first Presidential debate. Kerry talked directly about Osama bin Laden, which forced Bush to finally do so.
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BUSH: Never...when I was running -- when we had the debate in 2000, never dreamt I'd be doing that.
But the enemy attacked us, Jim
KERRY: Jim, the president just said something extraordinarily revealing and frankly very important in this debate. In answer to your question about Iraq and sending people into Iraq, he just said, "The enemy attacked us."
Saddam Hussein didn't attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us.
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Clearly, Bush's scheme of trying to get the public to forget about Osama bin Laden who attacked us on 9/11 unraveled during the debate.
As for an October surprise, if Bush has avoided capturing Osama bin Laden in order to score political points just before the election, then I can think of nothing more despicable. That would be politicizing the 9/11 attacks in a way that I think even Bush is incapable of.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
> Especially in this case, since there are literally thousands of people alive today who share bin Laden's paternal grandmother's mitochondrial DNA. The old sheikh was prolific, let's put it that way.
Absent some serious inbreeding, OBL doesn't have any of his paternal grandmother's mDNA.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade