October surprise

Christopher Hitchens raises some very valid points in Slate about the tenor of the Democrats' recent comments regarding the war on terrorism, and he is right to take Teresa Heinz Kerry to task for her statement that the Bush administration is planning to capture Osama bin Laden in time for the election. That implies that they know where he is and have the capability to capture him, but are waiting until the right moment--even though just about any moment would be the right moment, politically speaking--or they have him stowed away somewhere and are waiting for an opportune time to announce his capture. I'm willing to believe bad things about the Bush administration, but not that. Is she implying that they are going to try harder, now that an election is upon us? Good. More power to them if that's the case. I think there are a lot of good reasons to defeat Bush--many owing to domestic policy, which I believe still matters--but I'm not going to hope that things go badly just so he loses. On the other hand, it is legitimate to criticize the president's conduct of the war on terror, and his decision to invade Iraq, understanding that your opponents will always imply that you are undermining the nation's efforts when you do so.