NO OCTOBER SURPRISE QUITE YET: I mean, I don't think the idea that Kerry may not have, in fact, met with the whole entire Security Council is a real Kerry-killer. I don't think that's the best Team Bush can do--I'm sure they have something else up their sleeve--but if it is, it wasn't much.

The worst possible "October Surprise" is some kind of attack on us, of course. The Madrid bombings took place three days before the Spanish national election, so we're not out of the woods yet. At least there isn't an obvious "11" date in there for the obsessive terrorist-numerologist types to latch on to. Although November is the 11th month. I have yet to read something that explains the relvance of the numer 11 to the jihadists, so I oculd be making the connection up. My comics-reading brain wants them to be completely insane yet rigorously compulsive, so we can simple figure out their attacks in advance like when Batman always stops the Riddler.

I would've thought if somebody was going to drag Osama out they would've done it by now, so I guess that one isn't happening.

Anything else? Crude "Kerry supports deviant lifestyles" flyers won't work at this point. The long-rumored Bush abortion story? Maybe--people actually do think the "Bush drunk driving" story had an impact in 2000. But I sort of think all the skeletons are out at there at this point. Maybe Theresa will do a drunken rant on live television, but that's about it.

So the only potential election-changing event is a real terrorist attack. Now, logically, this would certainly be in Kerry's favor, since it would pretty well prove we are not being well-protected under the current administration. Illogically--and equally likely--would be a "he's a moron, but he's our moron" rally-around-the-flag reaction which would benefit Bush. But an attack is not a political trick, so it wouldn't be an actual October Surprise, which was the subject of this post.