I agree with BWL that grabbing bin Laden can't possibly be so easy, or else they wound have pulled that rabbit out of their collective hat four years ago.

However, I disagree with the other half of his argument. I do not believe that Bush and Cheney's personal affection for McCain, or lack thereof, has anything to do with the price of beans. Coddled corporate interests can't afford not to have a nice tame GOP executive branch under their thumbs. Blackwater, Halliburton, et. al., are the most obvious examples, but they're just the tip of the iceburg.

For those who would argue that "maverick" John McCain would clean house, persue bipartisanship, and restore the body politic to represent the ordinary citizen at least a little bettter than the current regime ~ take a look at how quickly and easily his campaign has been taken over by Big Brother and begun to pander to the most extreme and empty-headed Right.

I think the best "October surprise" the Republicans can manage will be to withdraw troops from Iraq significantly more quickly than currently advertised.

It just might work; this is a time-honored GOP tactic. Those of us who are old enough will recall that Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 largely on his promise of a "secret plan to end the war" in Vietnam. Of course, the plan was to continue the war for three-and-a-half more years, prompting the Dems to put forward a pretty-much-single-issue antiwar candidate, and then after the conventions and shortly before the 1972 general election, to pull the rug out from under McGovern by finally calling a halt to the slaughter, beginning the withdrawl, and scheduling the military draft to be discontinued on January 1, 1973.