Al Qaeda's McCain Hail Mary
I know I’m mixing religous metaphors in my headline, but as I suspected Al Qaeda (meaning “The Base” in Arabic) has put out a message calling for the humiliation of the Republican Party.
As Joe Klein Points out, this is not new.
On the Friday before the 2004 presidential election, Osama bin Laden released a videotape slamming George W. Bush, which more than a few people took as a tacit endorsement of John Kerry. The CIA saw it differently, though. According to Ron Suskind’s fine book, The One Percent Doctrine, Deputy Director John McLaughlin said, “Bin Laden certainly did a nice favor today for the President.” It seemed obvious to the top CIA analysts that bin Laden wanted to keep Bush — who had let the terrorists off the hook in Afghanistan and launched the war in Iraq, a great recruiting tool for al-Qaeda — in power.
Personally, this one doesn’t pass the “who cares” test, so if this is the October Surprise, I doubt that it will help McCain.